The meadows and rolling hills of earlier in the day had slowly transitioned to denser forests as we ascended the side of Coronet. There was a band of trees that went around the mountain, before the soil turned too rocky to sustain the larger forms of plantlife, and now we found ourselves entering that belt. It blocked the view back towards the glittering gem set in jade that was Hearthome among the forests and grasses, but I supposed that we’d get another look once we got above the treeline. From the looks of my map, though, the 208 went over an outcropping of Coronet, then back down slightly to cross a river, before ascending back up the mountain. From there, the trail turned into a snake winding up the rocky mountainside to a pass, where the 208, 207, and 211 met.
I felt like there was some significance with legendaries up there, but I couldn’t remember what, specifically, it was. If I’d been in Hoenn, I would’ve had the whole place memorized, but I hadn’t played Diamond and Pearl very much. I had to do with what knowledge I did have.
With not much more to do than hike, and occasionally forage for something edible for tonight’s meal, the Pokemon of our group had sought out other forms of entertainment. Now that Drake had shown the capability of utilizing Feint Attack, Jive had swapped to mentoring Ajax, draping himself across the houndour’s back and coaching him through directing the Dark energy in his aura. Mika and Noble were constantly challenging each other to games and competitions, and more often than not dragging some member of the party into it, often stealing Ajax from Jive’s attentions for something. I guessed that it was just because of the mutual puppy energy that the Electric and Dark hounds shared, from Ajax’s relative age and Mika’s typing.
Devi, on the other hand, appeared to be dedicated to walking Drake through the steps of Quick Attack. White energy swirled around Devi’s limbs as he demonstrated how the Normal energy was supposed to flow through the body, how it enhanced his movements and his reflexes. He would demonstrate the process of augmenting a limb from beginning to end, summoning the TE, channeling it through the aura, flooding a limb, then releasing it back into the aura once a movement was complete.
Drake could summon Normal energy in short bursts, he had to to use Tackle, but he had trouble holding it. It wasn’t antithetical to Dark, but it wasn’t his typing, and so he struggled with actually holding the energy over any period of time. It was shaky and sputtery when it entered his aura, and when he infused a limb, it never held for very long. Something that just took practice to achieve, I supposed. I remembered how the one Flying type in the Hearthome Gym practice areas had struggled to hold both Normal and Flying energy in their body at once. That was the next step after this one, right? After being able to summon and hold Normal, Drake would have to figure out how to sustain two types of TE at once.
Occasionally, with all the noise we were making, wild Pokemon would come to have a look. Some of them appeared just interested in the group coming through their territory, peering at us from bushes or tree branches. Rarely, we would spot a large and strong-looking Pokemon watching us, out in the open, and I thought back to the staraptor that had been guarding the berry bushes.
“It’s a challenge.”
I glanced at Blake, who was purposefully not looking at a large Machoke that was standing with their arms crossed, watching us intently. He saw the look out of the corner of his eye and elaborated.
“Strong wild Pokemon that want to get even stronger, or those with a competitive streak, will directly approach anything they think can give them a good fight. Pokemon that have been training under a human are typically very strong for their evolutionary stage and age, and are often the best fights they can get. With the lack of trainers making their way over Coronet via the oh-eight recently…” he shrugged. “Some of them, showing up like this isn’t a challenge, it’s an implicit…” He frowned, searching for the right word. “It’s not a threat, more of a… warning. They don’t want their territory violated, and they don’t want trainers fighting with or capturing the weaker Pokemon under their protection without their say so.”
“So, there’s a whole system of asking for wild Pokemon?”
“Nnneh, sort of? It depends whether they’re a part of an established colony or not. If a Pokemon actually comes out and challenges a trainer, usually that’s them wanting to be caught if the trainer can beat them, but it’s always a good idea to ask afterwards. If they’re just standing by, they’re looking for the trainer to potentially challenge them.”
I frowned. “How do you tell the difference between a Pokemon warning a trainer away and a Pokemon looking for a fight?”
“Oh, that one’s simple enough. A Pokemon giving a warning will retreat, a Pokemon looking for a fight won’t.” He shrugged. “Understand that these are mostly hard and fast rules, and not all Pokemon work the same way. It’s best to approach these situations with care. If it wasn’t for the fact that we need to make good time today to get to a good camping area, I might be challenging a couple of the Pokemon. Keeps them from seeking out human settlements to try and find a challenge.”
“And good training for everybody, yeah?”
“See? You’re learning. Yeah, matches like that usually aren’t too rough- nobody wants to really get hurt, so it’s more a match of strength than a battle to knockout.”
I couldn’t help but be impressed. I wouldn’t have guessed a lot of this myself, but Blake seemed incredibly knowledgeable about traveling through the wild and dealing with the Pokemon there. His own team was strong and cohesive, and he was highly competent. He was from Galar, and he had one of the primary starters… had he trained under the regional Professor? I wondered if he’d ever involved himself in the Galar league, and how far he might have gotten. He’d said he wasn’t participating in the Sinnoh League like I was. And he’d taken a job from the local Rangers, which meant that he had some kind of League association. Guy really was a mystery.
True to Blake’s words, we made good time along the mountain trail. Though the Pokemon along the route would occasionally stand on the edges of it, clearly as a challenge, none seemed so interested in us that it looked like they wanted to try for a slot on our teams. When they realized that we weren’t interested in a fight right now, they typically cleared out, looking for some other challenger. Typically, this ended up being other Pokemon that were looking to challenge us, if some of the sounds of fighting that followed our passing were to be believed. Blake shook his head at those.
“Not enough trainers or Rangers coming this way is bad for the region. Without a way to safely release tension, it’s going to cause issues among the local population if the patrols aren’t restarted sooner or later.”
I thought about mentioning it to Kevan, but it was something that I had little doubt that he knew, given how familiar he was with the responsibilities of Rangers on patrol. Still, I resolved to keep an eye out for things like the onix nest- potential disasters in waiting that I could relay along for them to keep a lid on. None of us needed the complications that might arise from an improperly managed region, especially with all the recent chaos.
Still, the hike was pleasant enough otherwise. While the path rose and fell, there weren’t any sections so steep as to be unmanageable, and it generally wound pretty sedately through the trees. I found myself enjoying my surroundings, though I did wish that I had headphones and a proper music archive to go with my Nav. This was a perfect environment for unfocusing with some nice music, and my archives had been wiped out when my phone was converted. I’d have to remember to figure out where people got their music online from when I hit Oreburgh, maybe secure a portable computer if I could stomach the cost.
At some points, the path had received damage, either from natural causes or Pokemon activity. A furrow carved across the path, a boulder dropped into it, a tree felled across it and blocking progress, and many more minor ones. We cleared the obstacles we could, working with our teams to push the large boulders out of the way, remove trees, clear debris. From what Blake said, it was generally considered the responsibility of the people that used this path to keep it usable, given that it mostly wasn’t officially maintained. There were bridges across the rivers and crags up ahead that were checked and maintained by engineers working with the Rangers, but in a general sort of sense path maintenance fell to trainers. Doubly so, if one had a League association; associates were expected to either call out things they saw, or work to address them themselves if they were confident they could do so.
Still, such obstacles presented more opportunities for training. I was starting to understand what the common mentality of trainers was: everything that got in your way was an opportunity to increase your strength and the strength of your team somehow. Boulder? Teamwork and a workout. Tree? Cutting it into slices that could be either packed away for firewood if dry enough, or moved off to the side if wet, was a perfect opportunity to practice techniques. I recalled my practice of seeing any other trainer in the games as an experience pinata, and realized that that appeared to be reflective of the actual attitudes of many trainers. Every difficulty or challenge to overcome was just another chance to increase your experience and capability, to learn something new. I had little doubt that that way of thinking separated out those who were career trainers from those that stopped at the fourth badge.
Still, even with all the difficulties, we made good time. Blake seemed to have accounted for them in his estimations of how long it would take us to make headway, and was highly satisfied with the amount of progress we’d made. By the time the sun was starting to fall from the sky, we’d made it to the place where he’d wanted to camp, a small fenced-off campground with a couple spots for tents and a stone firepit with an iron grill suspended above it.
We unloaded our various pieces of gear, and I busied myself unclipping the harnesses from Ajax and Drake and laying them out in such a way as to prevent them from tangling. Anything with food in it was separated out, to be placed in the tents once they were set up. I was immediately dubious about this, but Blake explained that while a scavenger might try to steal something if the bags were just out in the open, your average Pokemon wouldn’t even enter the campground and definitely wouldn’t go for our supplies. Remarkably different from what I knew about bears tearing their way into any supplies left out, and warnings against sleeping with them.
While Drake, Ajax, and I fumbled our way through setting up a camp for the first time with unfamiliar equipment, I kept an eye on Blake and his team. In contrast to us, it appeared that each of them had a responsibility, and very much knew what their task was when they pulled into a campground. Devi was coaxing a fire into life in the pit and arranging some cookware from a backpack he was carrying, Noble working to clear the area of detritus, Mika helping Blake with setting up their own tent. Occasionally, Jive would skitter back into camp with a couple of berries or something edible he’d found out in the forest, before scampering away again to secure something else.
Night fell quickly, and as it darkened, I made a note to buy some kind of headlamp. Maybe a rechargeable battery pack, with some lightweight solar? For power, Blake seemed to make do with a little gizmo that hooked up to Mika and drew off the canine’s passive electrical charge to generate a current that it stored in batteries. Without any heavy draws, just a couple of torches and some lanterns, they didn’t have all that much to burn the electricity. I was good for the moment, with the battery bank I’d had when I showed up here having been charged in the Center and not used since, but the little solar panel it came with definitely wasn’t going to keep up with the drain for more than a few days. With weeks to go between us and a reliable source of power, I would definitely have to make use of their system sooner or later.
Devi was apparently the chef of the group. With the flame started to his satisfaction and the cookware unpacked, Blake had retrieved some water from a pump at the edge of the site, and he’d got down to business. Soon, between the supplies we had and whatever Jive managed to forage, delicious smells were wafting through the campsite. It appeared that he was doing some kind of dish where slivers of canned meat were mixed with chopped berries and some sauces, then cooked in a pan. Whatever it was, it smelled amazing, and the hissing of the various components made my stomach rumble.
After a delicious meal, and some minor games between us, the camp began to settle down for the night. Blake was the first to call it, saying that he was an early riser. One by one, the Pokemon each retired on their own, some to the tent, and some to simply sleep in a soft patch of grass. Ajax ambled off and slipped into our tent, leaving me with Drake in my lap and a much lower fire. The dishes had been cleaned, I was filled with good food, and as the fire slowly died, I realized there were more stars than I could count above my head.
So distracted by everything, and tired from a long day of hiking over the trail and removing things blocking it, I wasn’t paying any attention to the forest around me. Thus, I missed the flash of white among the trees, and the eyes watching me intently. By the time I retrieved my e-tool to dump dirt on the ashes of the fire and properly smother it, the eyes were already gone. I retired with Drake to our tent, warmed by a deeply breathing Ajax, none the wiser.
----------------------------------------
Something wet touched my face. I groaned, reaching up to brush it away, and instead meeting a smooth flat surface. I cracked open an eye to find my hand pressed against Ajax’s bone plate, his eyes staring directly into mine. He sat there for a moment, then nosed me in the cheek again, hard enough to push my head back. I couldn’t help but laugh a little, pushing his head away as I got my arm underneath me and levered myself into a sitting position.
“Alright, alright, I’m up.”
I shrugged on some clothes, then unzipped the entrance to the tent and slid myself out. It wasn’t long after dawn, with the sun low enough that it was painting the tops of the trees around us without actually reaching into the gaps between them to touch the ground yet. Pokemon called to each other in the forest around us, varying distances and different cries. None of them had looted our camp in the night, so I supposed that Blake had been correct about that one. I stood up, stretching and groaning in satisfaction as my joints popped. I hadn’t precisely been sleeping on the hard ground, there had been a good foam mattress underneath me, but it was a far cry from the bed of the Center room.
Devi nodded to me from the firepit, where he’d already gotten a flame started. He had a pan over the grill, what appeared to be scrambled eggs sizzling and cooking and producing a scent that made me feel incredibly hungry. It was odd to have chicken eggs when Pokemon themselves reproduced via eggs, but… whatever. I was hungry, I still wasn’t all the way awake, and I wasn’t going to ask questions other than ‘when food’ and ‘how much’. Speaking of which, I moved closer, taking a quick measurement of the eggs myself. Almost done.
Devi saw my look and grinned, simply handing me a plate with some eggs already on it. I took the plate eagerly, grabbing the fork I’d used the previous night, salting the yellow and white mix, and tucking in with aplomb. It wasn’t quite a full English, but it was food nonetheless, and I was craving the proteins and such.
By the time I’d munched my way through them, and taken my plate and fork to be cleaned at the pump so they could be reused or put away, more of the camp was up and moving. Jive had grabbed Ajax for training, and the two had vanished into the forest together; I wasn’t worried. They could handle themselves.
Drake approached me with a plate of eggs held delicately in his mouth, giving me a questioning expression. I nodded, putting the now-clean dishware aside and going back to our tent, retrieving the seasoning that I’d purchased yesterday and sprinkling it over his food. With a gratified look, Drake dug in with as much gusto as I’d had earlier. I tucked the seasoning into a pocket and made a personal note to give Ajax his calcium supplement the next time I saw him.
Blake slid himself out of his own tent, straightening and repeating the same process I had- yawn, stretch, make pleased noise at the pops. He cast his gaze over the campsite, focusing briefly and happily on Devi making breakfast for everybody, then smiled in my direction.
“Morning.”
“Good morning.” I replied, moving to where the logs we’d sat on the previous night were arranged around the firepit.
Hearthome hadn’t exactly been warm already, and now, at a higher elevation and early in the morning, there was a noticeable chill in the air. The firepit chased it away, replacing it with a comfortable warmth radiated by the iron grill and the stone underneath the fire itself. Blake, Nav already out, accepted his own plate of food from the cinderace chef and plopped himself down on the log next to me.
“Weather report for today?”
He flicked his thumb across the screen, then nodded. “Good. Sunny, for the most part. Alright temperatures all the way up to the pass. Some rain north of us, but it doesn’t look like it’s moving in our direction, so we should be okay. As long as nothing major interferes, we should be making good time today as well.”
“Do you already have our next campsite in mind?”
He shook his head. “After this, there aren’t any more structured campsites until we cross the pass and come down the other side of Coronet. Over there, with Oreburgh so close, is an intensely popular area for camping and hiking. More established campsites.”
“So, fill our water bottles from the pump, is what I’m hearing.”
A nod. “The only water sources from here on out are rivers and lakes, and I wouldn’t trust that water without filtering and boiling.”
With the last batch of food done, Devi quickly and efficiently cleaned the cookware he’d used, tucking it away in his bag and dusting off his paws. The moment he was done, he grabbed Drake as Jive had grabbed Ajax, pulling the poochyena away while gesturing to him and explaining something. Drake listened intently, nodding at certain junctures and frowning himself.
“We’ll stick around here for an hour or two, until they decide they’re done with morning training. We’ll move on by then.” Blake held out his Nav for me, pointing out the outcropping of the mountain in front of us, where the elevation went up and the trees cleared before going back down again to cross a river. “I’d like to cross this spine here today, and camp closer to the river tonight. It’s a longer hike than Hearthome to here, but we’re getting an earlier start and hopefully we won’t need to slow down for as many obstacles. Without the forest around the path, Pokemon activity will be lower.”
“Might still hit the occasional Rock or Ground that decided to roll a boulder onto the route.” I said, tracing the route with my eyes.
“Mm, true. Still, with any luck, it’ll be a lot lower.”
Blake pawed through a few more apps on his Nav, then nodded to me and got to his feet, wandering off. I gave him a wave, looking around the now nearly empty site. Mika and Noble were napping in the sun together, now that it had risen enough to clear the trees a bit, dappling the ground with spots and specks of gold through the holes in the leaves. I considered starting the process of packing up the tent, but decided to leave it for now, in favour of exercising.
Squats, a few push ups, a bit of planking off the logs- I wasn’t an expert to any degree, but I knew that I would have to round out my physical fitness if I wanted to navigate environmental hazards. I’d never been weak, and I wasn’t fat by any measure, but there was a certain amount of fitness and endurance that being a trainer in the long run would demand. Fitness that I’d have to build the long and slow way, and something that I might as well start on now. Sometime during the routine, Mika and Noble got up and raced away, obviously determined to play one of their many games before we packed up camp and moved on. For the first time since… sheesh, since the day I’d arrived, I found myself completely alone.
I wasn’t sure if I welcomed the sensation or not. Certainly, I’d been a fan of personal space and personal time back home, where I had some limits on social contact. Here, though… I dunno. I supposed I was getting used to an elevated level of it, between my partners, Blake, and his partners. I’d started more conversations with more people in the past week than I would’ve in three weeks back home. Maybe the Pokemon world was just generally good for you, socially as well as physically? I’d noted that very few people I’d seen in Hearthome could’ve even been called overweight. Healthier lifestyles and healthier foods, along with a certain base level of physical activity and general positive attitudes, had appeared to be a boon for everybody involved. Who knew.
I walked a few laps around the site, both to cool off and allow my heart to slow and to check to make sure we weren’t accidentally leaving any trash behind. Confirming that the campsite was clear of any detritus we might’ve left, though I’d be making another sweep after we packed everything up, I filled my bottle at the pump and clipped it to my backpack. Some digging around in the pockets allowed me to fish out the book on eating cheap for trainers I’d picked up at the surplus, and I plopped myself down on one of the logs to read it. Besides just being fascinating from the angle of information about the world around me and its differences, this was information that could be vital to properly feeding everybody on the road. Devi had done all the cooking so far, but I was a fair chef myself, and I definitely didn’t want to slack on pulling my own weight.
I was halfway through a chapter listing native berry species, and how they could be prepared individually and on their own or with a series of ingredients, when I felt something skitter up my spine. Not a physical sensation, but a- a feeling. A feeling of being watched, some ancient caveman instinct waking up.
I froze, then immediately tried my best to relax. An animal might not be able to tell the difference between me being obviously stiff and anxious and being relaxed, but a Pokemon definitely could. If it was, indeed, a Pokemon watching me, and not a normal animal; they did exist, after all, they just seemed rarer than Pokemon. Carefully, I lifted my eyes from my book, affecting a casual air as I scanned the edge of the forest that circled me.
Every attempt I was making to appear casual was flushed right down the tube as I met with a pair of red eyes.
I couldn’t see anything else of the Pokemon, for a Pokemon they had to be, the rest of their body concealed by the bush that they were watching me from. The eyes, however, were impossible to mistake, beacons of softly glowing red standing out against the green of the leaves around them. They blinked, slow and deliberate, and I felt my breath get caught in my throat. Suddenly, I was intensely aware of the fact that everybody had vanished from camp, that none of either my team or Blake’s was anywhere nearby.
Could I shout for them? Maybe. If they were close enough, they’d hear me, and they’d definitely come looking. But making a really loud noise like that, while an excellent idea when dealing with a wild animal that you’d just come across by accident, might not be such a good idea here. How often did Pokemon attack humans directly? I had no idea. I was aware roughly of animal attack rates among the larger predators and more dangerous creatures back home, but I didn’t know a thing about it here. The only time I’d seen wild Pokemon out and out attack people had been when I’d first come to this world, the Ghost types that had assaulted Vinewood. It was a known thing, but not that common, obviously. Suddenly, it occurred to me that making eye contact was seen as a threat display among a wide variety of species, and I couldn’t help tightening my hand around my book, gently crinkling the pages. A little late for that thought now.
So, we ended up sitting there and watching each other, myself and this mystery bush Pokemon. I slowly relaxed as I watched it closer, realized that the look in those eyes wasn’t particularly hostile, and that they weren’t immediately making a move to attack me or something else. Maybe they’d smelled the food, and come to investigate? Or maybe they were just curious, and decided to see what we were up to?
I started to comb through my own memories, trying to think of any Pokemon that had red eyes, but I couldn’t specifically recall any. Eye colour wasn’t something I’d memorized. Of course, Drake had red iris against a yellowish sclera, but I didn’t think this was a poochyena: the sclera were white. Maybe it was a mightyena? Mightyena did have white sclera, if I remembered correctly. I wasn’t exactly going to go for my Pokedex right now. I peered closer, trying to identify features other than the eyes, maybe get a hint of what I was looking-
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“Hey, Cam.”
I immediately cleared the log with a yelp, scrambling to my feet and turning to see- Blake, just Blake, looking startled by my sudden outburst. Before he could question it, I spun on the place, quickly finding the bush again. The eyes that had been watching me for the last… I don’t know how long, were now gone. The leaves of the bush were shaking slightly, a vibration that slowed to a stop as I watched. So I hadn’t been imagining it, then, there was that at least.
“What… was that about?”
I turned back to Blake, who looked markedly perturbed. I gave him a shaky smile.
“Uh, well, there was… something watching me, from the bushes. Red eyes was about all I could see of them, and we were just staring at each other for a long time. And then you came up when I wasn’t expecting you and…” I shrugged, and he let out a soft ‘ah’ of understanding.
“A Pokemon?” I nodded, and pointed out the bush that it had been in. “Hm. Usually wild Pokemon don’t get that close to an inhabited campsite, even ones looking for a challenge. Might be a release, or one that has a lot of experience with humans.”
He walked over to the bush, pushing the leaves and branches out of the way, searching for something. After a moment, he uttered an ‘aha!’, then motioned me over with a hand. Moving to stand behind his shoulder and peering into the gap he’d made, I immediately saw what he’d seen. A series of pawprints had been left in the soft loam under the bush. They were roughly triangular, a main paw pad with three claws pointing away from it. I frowned at it, but I’d never been one for playing the paw identification minigame. The best I could say is that it was quadrupedal, and towards the typical size that most quadrupedal Pokemon seemed to be.
“Do you recognize the prints?” I asked him. Blake shook his head.
“Not any I’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t mean much. I know a lot more about Pokemon native to Galar than Sinnoh, obviously, and this isn’t one I’ve ever seen before. Or, if I have, I definitely don’t remember it.” He traced a finger along one of the pads, then slipped his Nav out and snapped a picture. “There. Now, if we see the tracks again, we can compare.”
He nodded in satisfaction, tucking his Nav away and standing up, brushing off his hands, walking back towards his tent. I lingered for a moment longer, staring at the print, then slipped my Pokedex out of my pocket. It didn’t have a camera or recognition software, but it had records of many different prints from many different Pokemon. I considered manually searching for a match, then dismissed the idea. Even if I specifically just searched in the national dex, that was a few hundred different kinds of Pokemon, and that’s assuming that Blake hadn’t been correct. What this could be was an out of region Pokemon that had been released, or had somehow migrated here, which means checking the print individually against every entry in the international entries. Not something I was even slightly tempted to do. With resignation, I slipped the device back into my pocket and turned away.
Packing up the camp was something that I knew would become routine, in the coming weeks. Still, it brought back memories of past times camping, the general sort of checks you make when intending to leave a site. Ensure that the fire was properly smothered with dirt and any embers buried with my faithful e-tool, make a spiral from the center of the camp outwards for any trash. Without any packaging from any of the food we’d eaten, there wasn’t any plastic garbage to be left around, but it nagged at me if I didn’t check. Old habits were hard to break, and Blake nodded appreciatively at my attentiveness.
The tents came together into compressed packages easily enough, and I strapped the tent bag to Ajax’s harness, attaching the foam mattress and the blanket I’d brought to my own backpack. One of the things I’d purchased had been a much more insulated sleeping bag, but now, with a Fire type on my team, it was hard to see it as being useful except in specific circumstances. All I really had to do was seal the tent with Ajax and myself in it, and that would be enough to keep me toasty in all but the most extreme temperatures. Still… better to have and not need, and all.
We finished around ten, Blake implying that it was a bit of a late start, but fine given that we didn’t have a specific end point in mind today. A last check of the campground didn’t reveal anything that needed our attention, and a double check ensured that our water containers were properly filled for an extended hike.
“Times like these make me wish I had a Water type.” Blake said, swirling the large bottle he kept in his own bag. “They can draw completely clean water directly out of the water table, ensuring that you have a good supply of potable water no matter where you camp. A capable Water type means that you don’t have to carry filters and rarely have to boil the stuff, unless you’re making tea.” He grinned.
“I can see how they might be handy.”
Maybe I should consider one? I’d always had a thing for otters, and Buizel was cute as all get out. I scratched my chin as I considered it. It’d be a fair bit out, unless we could find one hanging around a water supply, and it wanted to come along. I had two more Pokeballs hanging around in my bag, one that Jen had given me and the scarred-up one that I’d found in Vinewood’s lost and found… sheesh, was it only just over a week? It seemed longer than that.
I mulled over the idea of actually seeking out a Water type, then dismissed it. I didn’t think I needed one in any real sense, though if the opportunity and a willing Pokemon that fit the team presented themselves, I’d absolutely give it due consideration.
The second day on the trail found us hiking through the ever-changing environments of the slowly tilting land. Out here, the forest was somewhat denser and older, reminding me of some of the denser sections of forest I’d seen around Vinewood. Occasional clearings dotted the woods, and often the path led through them. The long grasses in these gaps appeared to be inhabited by a slightly different mix of Pokemon than the forest that surrounded them, more of a focus on Bug and Grass of lower evolutions.
Sometimes, we came across Pokemon that were using the trail themselves. They seemed surprised to see humans on it, either abandoning the trail entirely or merely giving us a wide berth. I guessed that with this trail not being the premiere choice for humans getting to the other side of Oreburgh, the 208 had more or less become a way for Pokemon to get around easier. Interestingly, this seemed reflected in the path itself; as opposed to yesterday, it was largely clear of obstacles. With the amount of Pokemon using it, they must be clearing it for themselves.
Occasionally, a Pokemon would step forwards to the edge of the forest. True to what he said, Blake checked to see if they were challenging, and gave them a good fight if they were. Devi never participated in these battles, simply walking away and practicing his kicks and punches, keeping a close eye on the match. Jive was more interested, and even participated once or twice, but it was obvious that he was toying with his opponents more than fighting them. Mike and Noble were the ones closer to the average skill and power of the challengers, and thus got the bulk of the attention, though it was still obvious that they were holding back. The crackling of Type energy was lesser than displays I’d seen from them before, blunted.
The challengers were mostly a mix of fighting types, boisterous and obviously desiring either to test long-practiced techniques and trained muscles, or just looking for a fight. Mostly they were machop and meditite, but in the mix there was the occasional tyrogue. It appeared that the stronger evolved Pokemon had migrated in the direction of Hearthome, perhaps seeking out trainers that roamed the grassy hills around the city rather than coming this deep into the increasingly mountainous forests.
Drake, Ajax, and I mostly contented ourselves with watching Blake and his Pokemon. It was interesting to see him and his Pokemon test their opponents, get an idea of what they could handle, then push them with that. Blake explained to me after one battle that it was an excellent exercise in control, precisely channeling a very specific amount of TE without going too high or too low. For my part, I was slowly building a better idea of how a skilled Pokemon channeled and directed TE within their aura. I watched closely as it bunched and swirled and focused around Noble or Mika, how they moved it around to use a technique or block an attack, how it sprang from them when they used a ranged move. It was an enlightening experience, and I found myself taking copious notes on the process. Before long, I was trying to implement these with Drake and Ajax.
“Okay, uh- yeah, like that. Bunch it up. Can you feel it?” Drake, look of extreme focus on his muzzle, nodded slowly. “Okay. Can you try to mold it?”
His face screwed up, the Type energy shivering and bulging slightly, before his control slipped and it dissolved. Ajax, on the other hand, was still trying to get the hang of concentrating his TE like Drake could. While he was obviously powerful, the TE in his aura thick and darker even than Drake’s, he had nowhere near Drake’s control. In fact, the additional power he had was working against him, his aura more likely to buck his control and run wild, painting his entire form in currents of dark.
Drake could marshal the TE into patterns for a moment, allowing the energy to express itself in the form of a technique, but he couldn’t hold the pattern. Maintaining Feint Attack for as long as he had in the Gym match showed that he had at least a general idea of it, but just wasn’t there in the consistency department quite yet. If he could hold and mold Dark Type energy, though, I suspected that would be quite a step towards holding Quick Attack.
Ajax, on the other hand, only knew two techniques: a concentrated pellet of Fire energy that made up Ember, and Bite. However, it was apparent from only a look that the patterns weren’t formed near as well as Drake’s were. With Ember, I could make a comparison- though somewhat unfairly- to some of the Fire type moves that Devi practiced during matches against wild Pokemon. For Bite, all I had to do was ask Drake to compare his own use of the technique. Regardless of which technique, I could easily see how the patterns were much rougher formed. It appeared that Ajax was brute forcing them, pouring power in to make up for his lack of control. It worked, strictly speaking; it did produce a functional technique. But Drake’s Bite would do more damage than Ajax’s, not to mention the much better TE efficiency. Even if Ajax had a much larger pool of power than Drake, it was still finite.
The routine we’d settled into was an easy one. Between Pokemon challengers, they’d both focus on getting the TE to concentrate over their chest. Ajax struggled somewhat with the process, having a bare grasp on the slippery TE, but Drake was swiftly getting it. From there, I explained to them that I wanted to try and move them to shifting the TE to one paw, then up their leg and across their chest, down another leg, and to their other paw. Through this process, they would get used to moving Type energy through their aura and concentrating it at specific parts of the body.
We stopped at noon in a grassy clearing for lunch. The grass here was shorter than many other clearings, short enough that nothing could sneak up on us, though I wasn’t sure how much I should be worried about something like that. The local Pokemon had seemed entirely upfront with their intentions, and none had tried to pull anything on us, or appeared to even think of doing so. Still, it was nice to have sightlines even if I didn’t intend to use them.
Without a fire, I had resigned myself to something like an energy bar. However, Blake quickly cleared me of that notion when he got out some bread. Some water from his bottle and a quick flare of heat allowed Devi to clean and sanitize his paws, at which point he’d take each slice of bread and place it between his paws, toasting it. Everyone got a couple slices of bread, toasted and buttered, and I quickly discovered that butter here tasted even better than back home. Mundane usefulness for Pokemon abilities strikes again. I eyed Ajax’s paws, though I felt that I’d have to resign myself to the idea that he couldn’t do that the way that Devi did. I really didn’t like the idea of him stepping on a piece of bread to toast it.
“You know,” I said, munching on my piece of toast, “I haven’t actually eaten a single one of the meals that I brought with me.”
“What, are you complaining?” Said Blake, a tinge of amusement apparent in his voice. I shook my head emphatically.
“No, absolutely not, I’m a lot happier with Devi’s great cooking than with a prepackaged meal.” Devi puffed himself up slightly, obviously pleased and equally obvious in his attempt to look aloof and uncaring instead. “Just something funny, to me. Though, Devi, if you ever want a break from cooking, just tell me. I’ll break out the packaged stuff, and you can sit back.”
He nodded his thanks, tearing apart his toast and munching through it. I finished my second slice, then nearly started in on the first before I stopped, snapping my fingers. Everyone present looked at me curiously as I went over and dug through Ajax’s bags, though it swiftly graduated to a much more intense interest when I pulled out the packaged jars of honey and unwrapped them. Immediately, Drake and Ajax seemed far more excited, as I twisted the cap off the spelon honey jar and traced a zig-zag line across their pieces of toast with the stuff.
“Honey, huh?”
“Yeah! I have a big thing for the stuff. We found out what a market there was for it in Hearthome, and, well, I couldn’t resist.” I smiled ruefully. “I meant to just get a jar or two. I walked out with four. So it goes, you know?”
He nodded. Rapidly, I found myself the center of attention for all the Pokemon there, who were all eager to try some honey on their Devi-toasted bread, even the rabbit turned toaster himself. Jive and Devi both seemed to share my boy’s tastes, favouring the spelon flavour, though neither seemed to want to acknowledge this shared point of preference. Mike and Noble, however, seemed to have tastes more closely aligned with mine, going right for the pecha stuff. I thought about using the watmel honey for my own bread, but decided against it, using the pecha for the second slice that I hadn’t eaten. Blake, on the other hand, turned me down entirely.
“Never been a fan of sweet,” he admitted.
Still, the honey was a resounding success, and I could feel that Devi definitely approved. The Fire type appeared appreciative of someone with a taste for good ingredients, and had very much enjoyed the high-quality stuff that I’d bought. I could see the gears turning behind his eyes as he considered other uses for my honey, and I resigned myself to the jars that I had probably not lasting over Coronet, though I’d had some doubt of them doing so regardless. Honey was just a nice, dense foodstuff that didn’t go bad, it was always something that one was going to go through on a long trip.
I noticed that the scent of the honey, the sweet and hints of spice, had drawn a number of different Pokemon. They rustled through the grass good distances from us, obviously seeking out the scent, but not nearly engaged enough to approach two humans and their partners. I considered leaving some for them, but I wasn’t just going to pour it onto the ground, and I couldn’t figure out a solution that didn’t require me leaving some sort of small container behind. In the end, I twisted the lids back onto the jars, slid them back into their protective foam sleeves, and placed them back into Ajax’s bags. We cleaned ourselves with a bit of water, and got back to the road.
After this point, we began to settle into the rhythm of things. Training, walking, the occasional matches with Pokemon challengers, moving down the trail and towards our eventual goal. The slow transitions of the land around us marked our progress towards the peak, the shift of different kinds of plant life and slightly different environs, the trail going up and down. The soil became rockier and the trees hardier as we left the lower forests and entered the rockier slopes that formed one of the offshoots of the mountain, altitude increasing before leveling off. The trail crossed ravines that were straddled by bridges, steep sides leading down to small creeks.
The Pokemon shifted as we walked, Rock types becoming more common as we made our way up. Thinking of the Pokedex entry about unaware hikers treading on the heads of buried geodude, I kept my eyes on where my feet landed, avoiding any particularly round rocks protruding out of the path. It didn’t escape my notice that Blake and his team avoided them without even seeming to think about it.
With the trees out of the way and our altitude higher than before, we had an unobstructed view out. I could see where a river that led up the mountain to our east wound down through the valley below us, water glittering in the sunlight. There was a lone mountain on one side of the valley, defining the dip in the land between itself and the spine of Coronet, making the valley a right angle that led south, and back west. Lush greenery filled the gap between the spine of Coronet and this other, smaller mountain, the rocky landscape and hardy plants around us transitioning to thicker forest, then fading out to rolling grassland that led down to the blue line of the river.
The view was with us all day, and I felt obligated to take a few carefully framed pictures with my Nav, which I sent to the group chat. I felt that flicker of frustration again, that a camera couldn’t quite capture what I could see. There was something lacking in a picture, something of depth, the sheer magnitude and majesty of what I saw, which was lost in the act. A very limited frame, a look into what I could see, but barely that. It didn’t capture how wide everything was, how much of… of… I struggled for words to even capture the feeling, or the entirety of what I saw, but I couldn’t quite grasp it.
The outcropping of rock whose peak we reached eventually began to tilt downwards, a slope leading closer to the line of trees that defined the transition between rocky slopes and the gentler forests. The route didn’t lead back into the forest, just coming close to it before leading up the mountain again, but it came close enough that you could see the individual trees.
As the day faded towards the evening of the second day of traveling, Blake sought out a relatively flat patch of ground that wasn’t totally covered in rocks. Looking at how it had been pulverized and knocked flat, his guess was that it was a camping spot that had been carved out by a Fighting, Rock, or Ground trainer, and then kept that way by trainers after them. It had a defined firepit, a hole lined with stones that had been planted in the ground and a few ashes. We were still carrying enough firewood for a proper fire, and there was plenty of scrub and discarded branches around us to work with.
Still, it was early enough that there was still plenty of sun, and even after a long day of walking, there was plenty of energy around. With the wide open areas, and even a roughly defined area that appeared to have been laid out for matches, it was easy to start some real practice. Ajax needed more experience, and I needed to be able to command him in a match, so it worked out pretty well.
“Ember!”
Ajax coughed, releasing a bright pellet of Fire energy, the heat of which I could feel from here. Devi practically slid out of the way of the projectile, letting it splash uselessly on a stone as white energy swirled around him. He’d automatically reached for Quick Attack a couple of different times during the match, only to restrain himself to a simpler Tackle. Occasionally, when Ajax began to look discouraged, he’d cushion himself with his own Fire TE and let an attack splash against it. Despite the lack of effect, it seemed to encourage Ajax.
I was slowly getting the hang of commanding the large Fire type. Ajax had a lot more power to call than Drake, but lacked his much finer control and his relatively blazing speed. He was the hammer to Drake’s scalpel, blunt force to something much finer that had to be wielded with skill to have effect. Interestingly, Ajax had quickly realized this, and had adopted a more primitive version of Devi’s cushioning technique, flooding his aura with Fire energy and bulling right through attacks that he would have otherwise had to dodge. The first time he did that in a fight was the first time that Devi took a true hit, the surprise at the tactic preventing him from dodging. It was wasteful, that was obvious to see when comparing Ajax’s undirected flare of orange to Devi’s precisely shaped almost armour, but it did work for what it was worth. With the basic idea down, Ajax could work on control, refining the technique to something usable.
More than powerful, though, Ajax was physically strong. This wasn’t so much something that surprised me, given Ajax’s sheer size as an alpha, but it was something that the both of us had to be constantly aware of in a match. A powerful blow from one of his paws shattered stones in the arena, his Bite, despite not being perfectly formed, could shear through rocks between the strength of his muscles and the Dark energy that enhanced it.
“You know,” Blake said, “I think I might have an exercise that Ajax might be interested in.”
We’d ended the matches when Ajax had started tiring out enough to be panting, muscles pushed to the limit by a long day of walking, training, and finally, mock battles. Now, Devi was doing something with potatoes, one of the things I’d picked up at the market and stuffed into Ajax’s packs. Specifically, he’d wrapped them in some kind of foil and inserted them into the edges of the campfire, and was occasionally reaching right into the embers with a paw to turn them over or adjust where they were.
“What kind of exercise?” I asked, watching as Devi gestured to the foil-wrapped potatoes, explaining something to Ajax, who was listening intently.
“Well, a good control exercise for Fire types is attempting to become a blowtorch. An incredibly fine and exceedingly hot focused flame. Fire types train for months or years to get precise temperatures for the purposes of welding, and Devi learned the technique from a construction Pokemon back home. He approached me about teaching it to Ajax, and I think it’s a good idea.”
“Yeah, that sounds like it’ll be a test of his control and his power. He’s got a lot of the latter and not much of the former, and it seems like he has trouble really mastering it or wielding it effectively.” I scratched my chin in consideration. “Think it would mean trouble in a long battle, or some kind of tournament. He’d run out of steam brute forcing techniques pretty quickly, if it went on too long.”
“The other half of it is that he could try welding rocks together.”
“Welding-?” I asked, incredulous. Could the flame get that hot?
“Sure. Devi’s done it a few times, melting just a bit of two rocks pressed together, making them essentially one. You’ll notice that places that didn’t have easy access to mortar use it as a construction method sometimes; a lot of old castles are constructed out of welded-together stone.”
“Huh. That’s interesting. Might give him an outlet that’s not just fighting.”
Devi seemed perfectly open to the idea when I brought it up with him, seeming enthused that Ajax and I seemed keen on going along with the idea that he’d put forth. The two of them left for a field of rocks close by after we’d all had our meal of potato and sausages, and by the time Ajax made his way back to the tent for the night, he was exhausted and exceedingly pleased.
Having done it once before, the process of breaking camp was much more familiar to my team, and the routines I was establishing with Blake’s lot were coming easier to me. I’d broken out the MRE’s to give Devi a break, and to make sure that we had plenty of energy for a hike over much rougher and rockier terrain today. The honey and the spices I’d purchased were shared around, and I found that while Mika actually did prefer sweet flavours, Noble was more of a dry kind of bird. Dry wasn’t really a flavour profile I’d really considered before now, but I couldn’t say I disliked it. Spicy and bitter weren’t my things, though.
Interestingly, most of the stuff that we’d brought with us had apparently been designed either to be reusable or buried and biodegraded. Something I noticed after it was pointed out to me was that plantlife was slightly more thick around the campsite than the rest of the rocky slopes, owing to the nutrition provided by properly disposed of things from trainers passing through.
“I typically have Devi incinerate anything that won’t break down swiftly or immediately, and scatter the ashes. Things like the remains of food and such. Breaking them down like that is almost fertilizer, and spreading the ashes encourages plant life like this.”
It all played into the general awareness that the Pokemon world really took their environmentalism seriously, even at the individual level. Examining the campsite with a more scrutinizing eye in the morning light, I realized that it had been specifically designed to minimize its own footprint. There wasn’t any trash around, not even the usual bits of glass that I was used to seeing around less official campsites that saw a lot of traffic. Between trainers and their teams being actively and constantly conscious of such things and wild Pokemon cleaning up after them, there wasn’t any litter to speak of. It was a nice change.
The third day was easier than the second. We’d been ascending up the side of a rocky slope yesterday, but now we were coming down the other side of it, the slope now tilting downwards slightly and making the walking easier. I knew that it wouldn’t last forever, with the path eventually leveling off ahead of us before ascending back up, but it was nice. The air was crisp, which definitely helped with the physical exertion, and unbelievably clean. Taking a deep inhale, I could pick out scents of the woods below us carried on the breeze, sun-heated stone, a hint of dust.
Ajax was completely distracted trying to get the technique right, with Devi tutoring him. The cinderace had reached the point where he could summon Fire energy to the tip of the finger and ignite a plasma torch from the tip, and was guiding Ajax to creating something similar from his mouth. Occasionally, he would produce jets of flame, orange and red to Devi’s efficient and much hotter blue. Not there yet, but grasping the basics.
The other four Pokemon appeared to have dedicated themselves to a lengthy game of tag. The rules were, from all appearances, that to ‘tag’ someone, you had to hit them with TE. This was frustratingly easy for Mika, who had ranged attacks built into their Electric typing, but not so easy for Drake or Noble. The corvisquire was still trying to master ranged Flying techniques, and Drake only had one ranged technique: Snarl. And given how rapidly Snarl tired him out, he seemed reluctant to use it even in a very watered-down form unless he was certain that it would hit one of them. Jive, of course, spent all of his time either dancing just outside of the range of the Pokemon who was currently ‘it’, or letting them catch him and immediately proceeding into playing with them like a cat played with mice. This led into a couple of different times where the other Pokemon would gang up on him regardless of the status of who was ‘it’, trying to herd him into a corner where he could be caught. Jive seemed to enjoy that immensely.
We were most of the way through the day before I heard, faintly in the distance, the sound of running water. Checking my Nav, I guessed that this was the second place where the 208 crossed a stream, a smaller ribbon of water that came together with others to feed the river that ran through the valley below us. Farther along and beyond that, the 208 crossed another river, then a stream that fed into it, before finally meeting with the 207 and the 211. The 211 led up Coronet, nearly to the peak, before winding around past it and traversing the entire spine of the mountain range that formed the center line of Sinnoh.
Staring at the map, I wondered what would’ve been different if Drake and I had turned Jen down, traveled north to Solaceon. From there, we would’ve gone through to Celestic, crossed to Eterna, maybe taken a train from Eterna down to Oreburgh by a much more circuitous route. Ironically, despite how far it would’ve taken me out of my way, it might’ve been faster. The 211 was shorter than the 208 to 207 route, and the moment I had access to public transit I would’ve been easily able to make up the time and more.
Still, though, I'd never have met Ajax. I wouldn’t have fought Fantina, had the huge boost to our confidence that was defeating Fantina. I wouldn’t have met Blake, and Drake wouldn’t be nearly as advanced as he was now. I would’ve never been inducted into the Jinnouchi. One of those things that you have to consider, the alternative paths that something could take. Different choices leading to different futures, different combinations of events. With nothing to do but walk and watch the Pokemon train and play, maybe even speak to Blake or one of mine, my mind wandered down those paths easily.
It was why the only thing that stopped me from walking farther forwards was Blake’s arm blocking me. I looked at it, and frowned at him, but he was staring forwards with a decidedly cautious expression. I realized that I hadn’t heard our partners making noise, and, looking past Blake, I could see them all looking in the same direction.
I turned my head, following their gazes, and inhaled sharply. I connected the things that I’d seen so far, the tracks, the eyes, and I felt stupid for a second for not putting the pieces together and realizing what Pokemon it had been.
Ahead of us, staring serenely back at us and blocking the path, was an absol.