As the sun sank towards the horizon, the two boys came back home, a full basket in their hands and their lips stained purple. Lance put his basket down, stretched his limbs, then turned towards the children with a grimace on his face.

“Alright kids, here you are. Did you learn your lesson?”

Blitzer and George nodded. “Yes. Don’t go out exploring when you’re too young,” Blitzer said. George puffed his cheeks out like a hamster while listening.

‘Well, at least we can repeat the lesson to ourselves.’

“Good. Off with you.”

With a lash of his tail, the Druddigon returned to his house at the edge of town. Blitzer and George sped off towards the village square, the former grinning intensely.

“Haha! He totally bought it!” Blitzer said. George's eyes opened wide; Blitzer’s cheers had attracted the attention of every pair of eyeballs in ear range. Without further ado, he threw his hand in front of the Charmander’s mouth and nodded awkwardly at all the dumbfounded stares coming their way.

‘’Maybe don’t celebrate too loud, Blitzer.”

“Oops… hihi.”

With George having quieted the mood, the two made their way home. A few knocks on the door later, Nera answered.

“Blitzer! George! You’re back!”

“Yes! And we’ve got the berries!” Blitzer said with a smile.

Nera wrapped her forelegs around Blitzer, who returned the gesture. “I’ve been worried sick! You were gone for so long, I was starting to imagine awful things. Oh, I shouldn’t have. I really shouldn’t.”

“Nope! I’m still here! It’s like I’ve told you, mom. No one bests me so easily!”

“...What about me?” George looked on unamused, tapping a foot. “Don’t just leave me standing…”

The Nidorina pulled him into the hug, getting a yelp out of George in the process. “Of course! You two must be hungry after an entire day out there. Come on in, it’s about time I got to work on dinner…” Nera suddenly sniffed a lungful. “...Wait, is that… Persim on your mouth? Why does your mouth reek of Persim, Blitzer?”

“Oh, well....” Blitzer sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “I did get a little hungry on the way back, so uhm… I snacked a little. And George did, too.”

George shook his head. “I only had one. You had like four, Blitzer.”

Nera chuckled. “Why now, you both must be famished! And why wouldn’t you be? You’re both hard workers, and hard workers deserve a good reward! So come on in.”

Once inside, they were greeted by the sight of Nero laying slumped out over the table, his head resting on top of his forelegs. It looked as if he had passed out from a drunken stupor.

“Please tell me you didn’t get hurt back there.”

“Of course we didn’t, dad! We’re better than that!” Blitzer said. Nero peeked up from his forelegs, carefully studying the two.

“Hm. No scratches, aside from a few spots… Wait, what? You’re not all scratched up?” Nero’s head shot up. “Well now, colour me surprised! You managed to get out there and come back without any injuries!” he said, his voice far more energetic and jovial.

“Yeah, we did really well today!” Blitzer ran up to his father as if he had a report card to show. “We’ve got a whole basket full of berries, and we got a whole bunch stronger, too! George even learned how to breathe water!”

Nero grinned. “I’m glad to hear life’s been treating you and your friend well. I sure hope it stays that way.”

“Indeed it will!” Blitzer said with a cheer. George raised his hands in a mocked cheer with a fake smile. Of course, if it hadn’t been for Lance, their time in the Azure Hills wouldn’t have such a happy ending. But it was best not to tell Nero that. George liked getting to leave the hovel unsupervised, let alone how Blitzer felt about it.

After dinner, Blitzer and George went into their room, leaving Blitzer’s parents alone for the night. The Charmander yawned upon arrival, having struggled to keep his tail off the ground. George crashed on his bed, his body begging for some rest. He still wanted answers to the Soldier questions. The silent meeting on the bridge had raised far more.

“Aah, I’m tired, and yet I’m still not spent! Maybe I’ll stay up a little longer,” said Blitzer, stretching his arms.

“Yeah, that’s fine by me,” George said, curling up on the straws. They felt a little more comfortable than in the morning. Either he was getting used to straw beds, or he was just that tired. He couldn’t tell.

“Don’t go to sleep right away, I need to show you something!” Blitzer held up a toy in front of George. It was some sort of paper spinner, each arm wrinkled and stained with dirt. “Watch!”

He breathed on the toy, careful to make sure no flames got out. The toy spun like a fan, each arm producing whirlwind-esque sounds as they rotated around the centre. It was a hypnotising thing, simple yet clever. Look for too long, and one may just get dizzy. Blitzer blew on it a few times more, giggling all the while.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Oh, that’s nice,” George muttered. Such a simple toy, yet Blitzer could get so much joy out of it. George’s thoughts wandered off to his own toys, back at the foster’s home. By now, either they had all gone into the garbage, or some other kid was playing with them to relieve some stress. Not that he had touched them in years.

‘If only I could have been so happy… that would have been very nice, wouldn’t it. Maybe I wouldn’t have to feel bad, being a ‘juvenile loser who plays with toys’... isn’t that right, headmistress? Wesley? Maybe I wouldn’t even be here...’

“Hey, what’s the matter?” Blitzer had noticed George sulking to himself and put the toy down.

“Me? Oh, it’s nothing,” George replied, his tail curled around his body.

“Are you sure? You don’t look so well.”

George gulped. “I’m just tired, that’s all. It’s been a long day.”

“Well yeah, it’s been exhausting, but you don’t look very exhausted. More like you’ve seen a ghost,” Blitzer said, pointing a finger at the ceiling. George sighed, and steeled his nerves.

‘Shift the conversation.’

The Oshawott sighed. “Okay, that wasn’t honest. My mind’s… still on the Soldiers from back at the bridge. You knew right away who they were, just like that.” George imitated the snap of a finger. "Didn’t second guess yourself either.”

Blitzer sat down on his bed, careful to not drop his toy or to let the flame on his tail touch the straws. George reflexively reached for his scalchop; there was no turning back now.

“Recognizing Soldiers isn’t hard,” the Charmander explained. “They’re all wearing something green. A wristband, a scarf, anything else… You see it, and you’ll know. Did you see what those Pokemon on the bridge wore?”

George pictured himself back on the bridge. Below his feet raged the waters, and the sun shone with volcanic intensity. Overwhelming as it was, he forced himself to concentrate on the two Pokemon. ‘Machoke and a Crawdaunt… hang on. Wait a minute. The Machoke had a scarf on… And the Crawdaunt had… some kind of ribbon or band?’ With a thump of his tail, George dropped his scalchop. “I think I remember. The Machoke had a helmet, and the Crawdaunt had something around his tail. Right?”

Blitzed clicked his tongue. “Well, both had scarves around their necks, but close enough.”

“Oh…” George took his scalchop back into his hands. Blitzer shrugged.

“Close enough. But yes, that’s what Soldiers were. That’s how you recognize one.”

George held onto a frown. The questions had only begun. “Why the green scarves?”

Blitzer shrugged again, then blew on his spinner. George’s eyes dashed back and forth over the room; the shadow of the spinner flickered.

“No one really knows. Kind of like this, I don’t know why it spins, but it does.”

“Okay…” George slumped back against the wall. “Do you know how many of them there are?”

Blitzer looked away and shivered. George felt his own body shake as well; as if thousands of spiders had fallen into the room. An audible gulp from Blitzer made him clutch onto his shell with the intensity of a nail.

“Well, um…” Blitzer sounded as if he was being choked. “I’ve only ever seen about ten at the same time,” he muttered, “but there’s supposed to be thousands… no, tens of thousands. Each stronger than the whole village combined. And that’s why everyone is afraid of them. Make one upset, you’ll get the rest.”

George breathed in deep. ‘But the ones on the bridge didn’t look that strong.’

“Can I ask you a question, George? Why do you want to know this?” Blitzer asked.

George backed up against the wall, as if cornered by Blitzer. “Because nobody has been telling me anything. All I know about the soldiers is that they’re bad and that they serve some queen.”

Blitzer sighed. “But George, I don’t know much about them either. No one in the village tells me anything either.”

George raised an eye. “Wait, why?”

Blitzer shook his head. “They say that I’m too young to know more, and that’s all they tell me. No matter how much I ask, nothing. Or they just tell me to go away.”

“But even you have to know something more than just this, right? You’ve lived here for almost all your life.”

“You know, we haven’t actually had many run-ins with Soldiers here in town, ever. Yesterday was the first time in a year at least. Although, I think we’ll be seeing more of them now….”

George sat and listened, his breaths sounding evermore fatigued with each exhale. Blitzer’s voice betrayed a greater worry. There had to have been more he wasn’t letting on. With how late it was, and George being glad to be on Blitzer’s good side, he had to let it slide. For now, at least. So many questions remained unanswered.

Blitzer went on to throw his mouth wide open in a yawn. “So, do you have any idea what we could do tomorrow? Because I can’t think of anything, really.”

George shrugged. “Go exploring again?”

“Eh, maybe. But where?”

“Greenfield Forest?”

“But we’ve already been there.”

“Well, we both want to get stronger, right?” George flexed a frail arm for emphasis. “We could train there tomorrow.”

The Charmander shook his head. “Nuh uh. That sounds boring to me. I want to explore something new,” he said. George stared at him, unamused.

‘I thought you were the one that wanted to get stronger so badly.’

“Okay. Well, if not that, can we go back to what we were going to do a day ago, and meet the other kids in the village? I’d like to meet them.”

Blitzer nodded. “Sure, if that’s what you want to do, then I’m all for it. Even if the kids might not like me.”

George bit his lip. “What do you mean, don’t like you? Why would the other kids not like you? You seem perfectly fine to me.”

Blitzer clicked his tongue. “Well, erhm… I was playing with them once, and uh, I didn’t really look where my tail was going, and, well, uh… it didn’t end so good,” he said, covering his face with his hands to hide a few awkward chuckles.

George slapped his forehead. ‘You know, for being born with it, he sure forgets about it easily.’ ”Great. Well, do you think they’ll accept you now, or is that not going to happen?”

Blitzer gave a quick shrug in reply. “We’ll see. It’s sure worth a try.”

George’s head leaned further and further to one side, even with him propping it up by one arm. Time doesn’t slow down for anyone. Ready or not, you best be prepared for anything, preferably as fast as possible. Especially basic sleep. “Okay then. But say that it goes completely wrong tomorrow, do you have any other suggestions? Anything else that we can do in this town?”

Blitzer curled up on his straw bed. “I don’t know. The café, maybe.”

“There’s a café in the village?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you see that big building in the main square?”

George thought back to earlier in the afternoon, all while sliding onto his side until his head rested on the straws underneath. Nothing in particular came to mind, however. The town’s board, some houses flanking the square’s perimeter, and some Pokemon gathered around. Besides that, just an empty slate. He shrugged.

“Not really. All I remember are houses and other people.”

“You didn’t see that big building? Or the crowd around the entrance?”

George rolled onto his back. “The crowd, maybe. I didn’t notice any café, though. You were louder than everyone there put together.”

“Oh well.” Blitzer followed George’s lead by rolling over. “Anyway, that’s the café. There’s a bunch of Pokemon gathered there. But I doubt they would let us in. Only adults are allowed in there. Believe me, I tried.”

George’s eyes were drawn to the wall. “Then that’s not going to happen.”

“Probably not, no.”

“Alright, so who do you think we should meet first?”

“I was thinking of Jinni. I still haven’t apologised for last time. Or Corst. Or Junior. Or actually, maybe Alcia-”

“Maybe we’re better off deciding that tomorrow, actually,” George said, then yawned.

“Sure. I’m too tired to think, anyway.”

Blitzer and George bid each other good night. Not too long after, George was half dreaming and half daydreaming, kept from proper sleep by the company of Blitzer’s snores. Perhaps tomorrow bore more answers. Or better company than a snoring Charmander. Which was still preferable to the headmistress.

----------------------------------------

image [https://file.garden/ZgQ_WQ_U3BIqPcfY/ZtH%20Chapter%20Specific/Chapter%209.png]