It all started on an unassuming day. Emalthya was out walking through the city when she thought she saw a rabbit. It was incredible, because rabbits were illegal where she lived. She remembered having a rabbit as a pet when she was very small, given to her by the back-fence neighbours. Emalthya found herself thinking, as she squinted and tried to find the rabbit, that it looked a lot like her pet. It was a honey brown colour, or so she estimated from her brief sight of it before it bounded off.
Following the rabbit, Emalthya found herself somewhere unfamiliar, but she still had a vague idea of where she was. She shook her head ruefully; why had she run after a rabbit? That seemed silly to think she could catch up to it. She turned back the way she had come and then suddenly felt very ill. The world spun around her and bright lights popped before her eyes. She tried to blink the auras away and saw the rabbit again, sitting and looking at her from under a bush.
Then the lights took up her whole vision and she fell to one knee, her eyes squeezed closed so she didn’t have to see the blinding lights. When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t where she had been before. She wandered through the trees, not quite believing they were real; she had been walking on a road before and now she was in the kind of forested area she rarely saw. She was not walking long before she found the nearest town; Pallet Town.
A man in a white coat looked up from a notebook and saw her. “Hello, I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you lost?”
Emalthya nodded. “I don’t know where I am. I feel really unwell.” It was true; she still felt dizzy and sick.
The man took her inside a building nearby, which turned out to be a laboratory. “I thought you might be lost because this whole area belongs to Professor Oak and his lab here; it’s a pokemon research preserve.”
“A… what did you say?” asked Emalthya, her speech slurring. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do anything wrong, I was following a bunny.” She swayed on her feet and the man helped her to a couch where she sat, leaning on the couch back with her eyes half shut.
“I’m going to get the professor,” said the man. “Just stay there.”
Emalthya closed her eyes and when she opened them again, an older man was in front of her, sitting on a footstool drawn up to the couch.
“I see you’re unwell, young lady,” said Professor Oak. “Did you go near any grass pokemon or breathe in something which could have been stun spore?”
Emalthya looked at him, trying to focus, but it was hard. “Grass pokemon? No, of course not. Pokemon- what are you talking about?”
Professor Oak looked at her gravely. She seemed delirious to him. He probably wouldn’t be able to get much information out of her. “Well, I hope you will allow us to help you; we are professors, after all. I’ll come back with something that should help you and then you can have a rest.”
Sleep did sound good to Emalthya, but she was wary of being in a strange house. Then again, what else could she do? She nodded. “Thank you,” she mumbled.
Professor Oak got to his feet and he and his assistant left to get salveyo syrup to treat what Professor Oak believed to be a heavy case of stun spore. As soon as they were gone, Emalthya rummaged in her bag for her mobile phone and tried to send a text message, but there was no coverage. Now she was very concerned about her safety but there was nothing else she could do. With that fatalistic thought, she began to doze against the couch.
She woke up when Professor Oak shook her arm gently. “This is salveyo,” he said, showing her the symbol on a medicine bottle. “It should help you.” He poured a dose into a cap and gave it to Emalthya, who hesitated, then drank it. It tasted herby, but not unpleasant.
“Thanks,” said Emalthya weakly, handing back the cap. She sat back against the couch and her head sank onto her chest. Her doze became sleep very quickly, which was indicative of how ill she felt; it normally took a long time for her to fall asleep.
Professor Oak checked her temperature with the back of his hand against her forehead. Her symptoms were similar to exposure to stun spore, but she also seemed confused, which did not usually affect sufferers. While Emalthya was asleep, he picked up her bag from beside her and searched in it for identification. What he found made him take the entire bag into his laboratory and run some tests.
“What are you looking for, Professor?” asked his assistant, Laramie.
“I think there has been some pokemon interference here,” Professor Oak said with strangled excitement. “Not stun spore, but something else. What did she say to you before I came in?”
“That she had been chasing a bunny.”
“Bunny?” questioned Professor Oak. “She didn’t say lopunny or buneary or diggersby?”
“She said bunny,” repeated Laramie.
“Interesting…” said Professor Oak. He took swabs from Emalthya’s belongings and put them through a machine to read for energy and radiation readings.
“If you don’t mind me asking again,” began his assistant, “what are you looking for?”
“I think this young lady,” Professor Oak paused to pick up Emalthya’s purse and looked at her identification card, “Emalthya,” he read slowly, “has been affected by the abilities of a pokemon, perhaps even a legendary pokemon. I think she has come here from another country, or a completely separate dimension.”
“Another dimension?” asked Laramie, flabbergasted. “Is that possible?”
“Oh, yes, very possible, and interdimensional travel really takes it out of you,” replied Professor oak knowledgably. His assistant did not look convinced, so Professor Oak explained further; “I suspect that some kind of rabbit pokemon, lopunny, perhaps, has been carried from our dimension to wherever it is that Emalthya is from. My theory is that this power from this unknown pokemon came in the form of a tsunami wave, pushing Lopunny out of our dimension and into another and then drawing Lopunny back here along with Emalthya, because she was close to it.”
“Is there a pokemon strong enough to do that?” asked Laramie in a low voice, as though he was afraid of the answer.
“Yes,” said Professor Oak gravely. “In fact, there are many pokemon with the power to move between dimensions.”
“Why would a pokemon like that move a lopunny through dimensions?”
“Why, indeed?” asked Professor Oak softly.
An hour later, Emalthya woke up on the couch feeling as though she had slept poorly, but she could think clearly and no longer felt ill. Either the sleep or the salveyo weed medicine had worked. The first thing she noticed was the absence of her bag and she became very frightened. What had those men done with her things?
She stood up and made for the door, intending to search the place from top to bottom. The door opened from without before she could reach it.
“You’re awake,” commented Professor Oak, coming through the door holding out her bag. “I was running a few tests on your belongings to find out what happened to you.”
Emalthya took her bag back and held it in her arms protectively. “What tests?” she asked suspiciously.
“Tests to determine if you came near any strong psychic attacks or altering abilities,” explained Professor Oak. “It is my theory that you are no longer in the place you call home,” he finished delicately. Telling someone they were completely displaced is not something to do bluntly.
Emalthya was made more fearful with every word she listened to. What did he mean? “Where am I?” she asked in a small, scared voice.
Professor Oak gestured for her to walk with him to the large gossamer-curtained French-style doors which lead from his front room to the fields which spread from his lab. He opened one pair of doors and a burst of light invaded the room. Emalthya’s eyes smarted as they adjusted to the sudden glare.
“Welcome to the world of pokemon.”
Later, Emalthya sat at the table in Profesor’s Oak’s sitting room while she tried to make sense of her day. She had been sucked through to the world of pokemon and was drinking tea with Professor Oak. It was absolutely unreal, but she was slowly acclimatising to the feeling that she could not believe her eyes. “I wish I had had the chance to tell everyone goodbye,” she said.
“There is every possibility that you stay here is temporary,” advised Professor Oak. “You may be returned to your own place at any time. I would make the most of it.”
“I am,” replied Emalthya insistently. “I mean, I will! I want to see this whole place, it would be fantastic!”
Professor Oak smiled and covered it with his first, pretending to cough, and assumed a serious expression. “It happens that I have a job for one of my trainers to do, but none of them have returned to Pallet Town lately, which is fine; they’re off having their own adventures and never stay home long if they can help it. I have had two new trainers come through in the past week for their first pokemon, but they have enough to do without running an errand for me.
“It seems that fate had it planned that you would be in the perfect position to help me with this.”
“Yeah,” agreed Emalthya dully, “my position of being alone with no resources in a strange place, possibly forever.”
Professor Oak’s brow creased. “I didn’t mean to make it sound so dire. If you help me with this, you’ll earn a fee, and I think we can outfit you to get you started, considering the wonderful research opportunities you’ve presented us with just by coming here.”
Emalthya smiled gratefully at him. “I do appreciate the help.”
“You don’t have the job yet,” Professor Oak reminded her with mock severity. “It all depends on the answer you give to this question.”
Emalthya waited for him to continue; watching him deliberately sip from his teacup and return it to its saucer.
“Why were you chasing the bunny?” it wasn’t the frivolous question it might seem; Professor Oak was concerned that perhaps this nice looking young person had chased it for some very nasty reason. He didn’t think that would be the truth, but he needed to check.
“Oh!” said Emalthya with a laugh. “Rabbits are banned where I live, so I wanted to see if it really was a rabbit, or if it was a possum or a cat. It also reminded me of a rabbit I used to have as a kid; its name was Marmy.”
Professor Oak nodded thoughtfully as he listened. “What happened to this Marmy?”
“It escaped,” answered Emalthya matter-of-factly. “That was what they told me, anyway, and I don’t really want to know if that’s not what really happened.”
“That,” said Professor Oak slowly, “was a good answer. You can take the job, if you still want it. A research associate I know in Saffron City wanted some pokemon information I have worked on, but it is sensitive so I sent it to him encoded. I would like you to travel to Saffron and deliver the code password to Professor Myrtle of Sylph Co.”
“That sounds great,” replied Emalthya. “Saffron isn’t too far from here; north to Pewter past Viridian, west to Cerulean across Mount Moon, then south to Saffron,” she worked out from memory.
Professor Oak was impressed. “That’s true, but it will not be that simple. It will be a lot easier if you had your own pokemon.”
Emalthya felt a dizzying sensation of hope swell inside her, but she stifled it. She should be sure Professor Oak was giving her a pokemon before she flipped out with joy. “Are you offering?” she tried to ask calmly.
“This is the place new trainers start out for a reason,” answered Professor Oak. “Come down to the lab and you can see.”
Emalthya tried to keep her pace to Professor Oak’s, but she couldn’t help hurrying ahead of him. She reached the door to the pokemon lab a few moments before him and stood before it, shifting her weight from foot to foot in anticipation and nervousness.
Professor oak put his hand on the door handle and considered Emalthya. She was older than a starter trainer would normally be, but she had experienced the world of pokemon through simulations, so he couldn’t help but feel like he was giving her the experience of a lifetime, even more so than the young trainers who came through, who had expected a pokemon for themselves. “You’re familiar with the geography of Kanto, so maybe you know which pokemon we give to new trainers here?”
“Bulbasaur, squirtle, and charmander,” babbled Emalthya quickly.
“Good,” replied Professor Oak. “Which one would you choose?”
Emalthya reeled back on her heels, struck by the thought. Which would she choose? Charmander was her favourite, or was it? Would she choose bulbasaur, like her first pokemon? Or go completely different; she didn’t hate squirtle.
“Charmander,” said Emalthya finally.
Professor Oak breathed out in relief. “That’s good. Do you remember before when I said two new trainers came through this week? Well, those two trainers took the squirtle and the bulbasaur I had.” He turned the handle and opened the door to the lab. “Charmander?” he called.
His only answer was the cracking of claws on tiles.
Emalthya entered the lab and looked around. There were a few toys on the ground, abandoned. Maybe the charmander was exploring? Or maybe it was hiding…
“Charmander, this nice young lady would like to be your trainer,” called out Professor Oak again.
The cracking sounds grew louder and then stopped. Emalthya thought she would see the curve of a round, draconic head in the shadow of a filing cabinet.
“I know I may not be what you were expecting,” said Emalthya, kneeling down on the cold tiles. “But I will do my very best for you. I would love to have a chance to be your friend.”
Charmander leaned out of the shadows and approached Emalthya, who caught her breath at the sight of him. He was beautiful.
“My name is Emalthya,” Emalthya introduced herself. “I have studied pokemon since I was ten years old, which I know isn’t like being ten years old,” she admitted reluctantly. “The first pokemon I chose to study was a bulbasaur. His name was Brutus, and I loved him so dearly.”
As she spoke, charmander slowly walked towards her, attracted by the warmth in her voice when she spoke of this pokemon.
“More recently, I studied a charmander, like you,” Emalthya continued. “His name was Pheonic, and he was proud and strong and good. I would like to help you become the great pokemon I know you can be. H…” It was at this point that her voice faltered. She looked into charmander’s hesitant blue eyes and asked, “How about it? Do you want to come with me?”
Charmander put his claws on her leg where he could reach and smiled with his mouth full of sharp teeth.
“I think that is agreement,” said Professor Oak, touched that she would ask for the pokemon to come with her, not expect it to once chosen.
“Really?” asked Emalthya.
Charmander nosed and Emalthya, sore from kneeling on the cold floor, held her hands out to him. He did not flinch or move away, so Emalthya gathered his up in her arms, careful to avoid singing herself on his tail flame, and got to her feet, to the relief of her chilled knees.
“You know, I would like to name you after my dear Pheonix, so you can follow his path to greatness. Not glory, necessarily,” she told the starry eyes charmander, “ but greatness of spirit and goodness of heart and kindness of nature. What do you think?”
Charmander nodded approvingly and Emalthya kissed his smooth head. Charmander, now Pheonix, had just experienced his first taste of the love of a trainer. He had imagined his trainer very often, but it had not been like this. His daydreams had gone in the same way that bulbasaur and squirtle met their trainers; those ten years olds had simply picked them up and left with them. This Emalthya had had to convince him to take her on. She was much older than the other trainers had been, with more experience, but also with more reverence, more appreciation.
Pheonix could not remember being adored this way before, it wasn’t like a parent, but like a friend.
He understood that she had named him after a charmander she had once known, but he did not believe that she was trying to make him into that other person. He felt the name like a mantle of responsibility and opportunity; he could be as good as the past Pheonix and he must not let the name down.
He didn’t like to admit it to himself, but it was very hard to be the last one chosen. It was almost like not being chosen at all. He had worried that the trainer to come for him might have wanted a bulbasaur or squirtle and would have to take him because they were gone. He was more relieved than he could say that Emalthya seemed to have come especially for him.
He wound a claw into Emalthya’s long hair and laid his scaly cheek against her shoulder.
“You have yourself your first pokemon,” observed Professor Oak. “Here is his pokeball. Now let’s get you set up for your journey.”
With Pheonix nestled in the crook of one elbow, Emalthya went into Pallet Town with Laramie to buy supplies. Pallet Town was the place where many trainers start out, so the shops stocked traveller’s needs in an array Emalthya could not have imagined. Laramie was a great help as he knew all the stores in town.
Emalthya bought tougher clothes which would not show stains, pokemon and human food, potions and other medicines in case of emergencies, a thick tarpaulin, and a sleeping bag, among other useful things. She was very grateful for Professor Oak’s help in getting herself organised, especially since her currency would not have bought anything in the stores. She left her foreign money, identification, old clothes, telephone, and backpack at the lab as none of these things would do her any good on the road in Kanto and Professor Oak wanted do some more tests on them.
Emalthya settled into a futon bed in a rarely-used storeroom in Professor oak’s lab wearing a new nightdress and kept warm by a curled Pheonix. Professor Oak had insisted that she spend the night as his guest to sleep off the last of her weakness and fuzzy head, which he explained to be ‘transport sickness’.
Pheonix had his own basket-bed, but he wanted to sleep at the side of hers. Normally, a trainer’s pokemon would sleep in a pokeball, but she wanted to bond properly with him.
“It’s a good idea for you to get used to being out of your pokeball anyway,” Emalthya had said, laying a cushion in the basket before she made her own bed. “I don’t really want you to be in your pokeball at all. I get lonely. That, and I want you to get big and strong! You can’t get strong in a pokeball. You’ll walk with me, up hills, down hills. It will be good for our stamina and speed.” She stood up and looked over at Pheonix, watching her make his sleeping place while laying stretched out on her futon.
“Does that sound good? You can always tell me if you want to go in.”
Pheonix yawned and settled his head on his arms.
“I suppose that’s not a ‘no’,” said Emalthya.
***
Standing at the gates of his lab with Emalthya, Laramie, and Pheonix the next morning, Professor Oak brushed away Emalthya’s effusive thanks .
“No need to thank me,” He said. “You are doing me a great favour by going to Saffron and you brought a very interesting puzzle for us to think about.”
“I really am so grateful,” insisted Emalthya. She had her bag on her back and Pheonix in her arms. “Especially for Pheonix.”
“The best thanks would be to return one day and show me your progress.”
“We will!” Emalthya assured him. Pheonix nodded in agreement.
“We should take a picture before you go,” said Laramie excitedly. “The new Poketech lets you take pictures. Give me yours and stand over by the gates with the professor.”
Emalthya arranged herself next to a bemused Professor Oak in front of the gate.
“Smile!” encouraged Laramie, Emalthya’s tech held up.
Emalthya tried to smile normally, but she was so happy she was sure she must have looked deranged.
“Aaaand… that’s it. It’s a good one,” said Laramie, handing the tech back to Emalthya. “Day One of your Pokemon adventure.”
“Thank you,” said Emalthya. “See you later.” She looked on down the road, stretching away from them. She noticed Laramie looking, also. Emalthya wondered if he really wanted to be a Pokemon Lab Aide or if he would prefer to be wandering the wilds. Not that she expected to do much wandering in the wilds herself! Emalthya was not a very outdoorsy person; she hadn’t even been camping before, but she knew she would have to get used to it. There were no motels on the road.
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 11:59 pm
First Journey:The Delivery - Pallet Town to Saffron City
Pheonix walked by himself not long after Professor Oak’s Lab was out of sight and Emalthya popped open her umbrella to shade her face from the sun. Her ‘brolly’ was useful for keeping rain off, covering her from the sun and, also, for use as a weapon to poke at people who deserved it. She hoped she would not have to use it for the last reason while on the road.
The road extending through Route 1 from Pallet town to Viridian City did not even count as a road, in Emalthya’s opinion, being more like a dirt track wide enough for only one small car, not that they saw any. There certainly weren’t any motels on the way.
The first pokemon Emalthya and Pheonix encountered was a pidgey. Emalthya gasped and exclaimed at how cute it was, which seemed to offend it deeply. It immediately scuffed at the dirt road and flapped its wings rapidly. Emalthya’s expression snapped from adoration to hard concentration.
“It’s using sand attack! Close your eyes!” she cried to Pheonix.
Pheonix hesitated. He did not want to lose sight of his enemy, but sand was getting in his eyes already.
“I will look out for you, please trust me, Pheonix!” called Emalthya urgently.
Pheonix shut his eyes. He forced himself not to claw at them, to scratch the itching sand away. He felt the wind around him and the flying dirt and dust ease.
“Now, open your eyes and use scratch,” said Emalthya. Her voice was weaker than before and she coughed to try and dislodge the dust in her throat. Her eyes were watering, too. She wished she had thought to buy goggles.
Pheonix obeyed, springing forward with only slightly diminished sight and bringing his outstretched right claw down upon the pidgey’s brown head. The pidgey cried out and threw itself at Pheonix in a tackle attack softened by its own downy feathers.
“Scratch again, Pheonix, aim for its chest!”
Pheonix drew his claw up the pidgey’s chest. The pidgey shuddered and drew back. Pheonix suddenly understood that the chest was the best place to hit a pidgey; a pidgey’s head had its beak, which could grab and snap, its wings could push you off, its legs moved too fast and would stir up dirt as easily as walk, but its chest was unprotected.
The pidgey set off another spray of dirt and when Emalthya told him to shut his eyes, Pheonix complied immediately.
“Duck onto the ground and roll away; it’s aiming for your head!” instructed Emalthya as the pidgey threw itself forward through its own veil of sand with its wing raised to cuff Pheonix.
Pheonix threw himself down and rolled. The pidgey overextended and wobbled on its feet.
“Get up and use scratch again while it’s off balance!”
Pheonix opened his eyes and clawed upwards across the pidgey’s chest, hitting it for the second time in the same place. The pidgey cooed and fell down in a faint.
“Good job, Pheonix!” said Emalthya, overjoyed. She gathered Pheonix into her arms and kissed his dusty head. She released him to shrug her backpack off and open it. Pheonix expected her to use a pokeball on the pidgey, but she instead pulled out a bottle of water. “Do you want me to wash your eyes out? Are they itchy?”
Pheonix blinked at her. His eyes were a little sore, but not that sore. He shook his head.
“That’s fine,” said Emalthya with a smile. She poured some water into her own hands and held them up to her face, blinking to dislodge the grit in her eyes. She glanced up and squinted through the water when she heard a scuffling sound. The pidgey had woken up. It did not seem like it wanted a rematch and looked a bit worse for the wear.
Emalthya dug out a pokemon food nugget from her bag. “Thanks for a good battle, pidgey. Want a nugget?” she asked, offering out the large brown pellet.
The pidgey shook itself haughtily and ran back into the grass.
Emalthya smiled. “Oh, well. You did a great job, Pheonix! Would you like the poke nugget?”
Pheonix grinned and took the nugget, crunching it between his large teeth.
While Route 1 usually would only take an hour or so of brisk walking from start to finish, Emalthya and Pheonix took the entire morning and they only arrived in Viridian City in the early afternoon. They were very tired, having searched out and fought every pokemon on the route. With every battle, it was clear that the pokemon there were very weak and Pheonix quickly grew bored fighting such easy marks. He felt dirtier than he had ever felt before and found himself longing for a bath, which was odd for him, as he was not over-fond of baths.
“Viridian City,” breathed Emalthya wondrously as they came abreast of the signpost announcing the location. Pheonix was slightly impressed that she could sound so bright after such a gruelling morning. She was not very clean, either; the result of fighting many sand-storm causing pidgey.
“Let’s go to the Pokemon Centre and get you healed up, and then we can go back and fight some more wild pokemon after lunch, what do you think?” she asked Pheonix brightly.
Pheonix hesitated. He did not want to fight any more pokemon. True, he trusted his trainer very much after their battles and knew she didn’t mean to put him through endless toil, but he was bored to tears. He did not know what she was after; she had not thrown a single pokeball at any of his opponents! Was it simply battling for battling’s sake?
Pheonix thought about that. Maybe she was trying to get to know him better through battling? Maybe he should try and understand her more from how they worked together? One day spent on a route to get closer would not be such a bad thing, would it, even if it was as interesting as counting ants in a line?
He had paused so long that Emalthya’s hopeful smile had become stale and her eyes were concerned. She brightened again as Pheonix hissed, apparently in agreement, and started towards the pokemon centre, his tail flame bobbing behind him.
At the Pokemon Centre, Nurse Joy chuckled in surprise at the sight of them. “You’re dirtier than your pokemon!” she said to Emalthya.
“That’s good, hard work for you,” Emalthya replied. “Could I get Pheonix seen to, please?”
Nurse Joy came out from behind her counter. “No pokeball for this one?” she asked benignly.
“No, I thought it would… improve his strength… by walking,” said Emalthya haltingly, suddenly doubtful. “Is that an issue?”
“Not at all, it’s just as easy to care for them in their pokeballs as without, as long as they’re not too big!” replied Nurse Joy with her customary grace.
While Pheonix was being healed, Emalthya washed her own face and brushed off her clothes. She really was quite grubby, but she looked better after a wash. When she came out, she found Pheonix waiting for her.
“Let’s get a bit of that dirt off you,” she said to him and took him back into the bathroom. It wasn’t the bath he had wanted, but he no longer felt like he could peel off the dust and it would keep his own shape.
“Off again?” asked Nurse Joy. “There’s only a few hours before sunset.”
“We should get as much in our days as we can,” explained Emalthya. She blinked as a sudden thought came to her. “Actually, Nurse Joy… would you mind taking a picture? I think we should take one every time we come to a new Pokemon Centre, what do you think, Pheonix?”
Pheonix didn’t really care. They had had a picture that morning! He was not going to be petty and refuse, though, so he smiled at the tech when Nurse Joy aimed it at him and Emalthya outside the Pokemon Centre.
“Thanks so much, Nurse Joy, see you soon,” said Emalthya, taking back the tech. Nurse Joy waved to them as Emalthya and Pheonix returned to Route 1.
“I think our plan ought to be that we will stay on Route 1 until you can knock out any pokemon here with one stroke,” said Emalthya, shifting the straps of her bag. “Then we can go to Route 22. That will be a challenge; there are poison pokemon there. When you can defeat those pokemon in one stroke, we will move on to Route 2. After Route 2 is Viridian Forest and I thought that would be a great place to learn metal claw. We’ll need metal claw to get through Mount Moon, because of the rock pokemon that live there. They won’t be vulnerable to your scratch attack, or even fire attacks, when you learn them.”
Pheonix stared at her, agog. All these things his trainer wanted to do! Work, work, work, train, train, train- it was like she had their entire lives mapped out ahead of them and it made Pheonix feel tired even to think about it. Were they ever going to have fun?
If he wanted to have fun, that day was not his day. When the sun set, Emalthya pulled out her tarpaulin, sleeping bag, toiletries, and nightdress, along with everything else in her bag, which she hurriedly stuffed back in. “I know it’s only ten minutes’ walk to Viridian, but we should get used to camping.”
The rattata they had just defeated finished its pokemon nugget and sniffed towards a pokeball rolling away from Emalthya’s pack.
“Oh, no, no no!” said Emalthya, grabbing up to pokeball and stuffing it back into a pocket of her bag. “Not for you, little guy!”
Pheonix looked up at her questioningly. If the rattata had touched the pokeball, it would have been the easiest capture ever. Why had she not let it happen?
Emalthya spread out her tarpaulin and her sleeping bag on the ground. “I have you,” she said to Pheonix. “That’s enough. We can make many friends, and we can visit them when we come back.” She brushed her hair back behind her ear. “I have only been a pokemon trainer for one day,” she said self-consciously. “I would rather spend all my time getting it right with you.”
Rattata, sitting next to Pheonix, nodded and ground its teeth together to make a squeaking sound. That argument sounded fine to him. He shivered himself up, squeaked at Emalthya to say goodnight, and bolted off into the long grass.
After a simple dinner of pokemon nuggets and a sandwich and fruit for his trainer, Pheonix scratched at the dirt while Emalthya changed into her nightdress and cleaned her teeth. They settled to sleep early, both exhausted after their day. Emalthya slept poorly. Every time she woke, she could see Pheonix, illuminated by his tail flame, and she relaxed again, privately grateful her pokemon was so reassuringly visible in the dark.
The next day was very different to the day before. Emalthya was sore from sleeping on the ground instead of relaxed from sleeping in a bed, though Pheonix seemed fine. The pokemon on Route 1 were much easier to find; word had apparently spread that if they fought Pheonix, they would get a pokemon nugget. Pokemon came out of the grass one after another and Emalthya was running low on pokemon nuggets before lunchtime.
It was just as well; Pheonix needed a rest to replenish his power points and he was beginning to knock out his opponents with one attack. He and Emalthya made their way back to Viridian, farewelling the pokemon there along the way. After a brief rest at the Pokemon Centre and a stop at the Pokemart for more pokemon nuggets, they travelled west to Route 22.
Pheonix was bored to tears by then and he scuffed his feet as he walked. How could Emalthya bear the boredom of fighting weak pokemon over again, never seeing anything new? He supposed it helped that she got so excited every time she saw a pokemon emerge from the grass to fight him, even pidgey and rattata.
He sighed, hoping half-heartedly that he might expel flame at the same time but he had not gained enough experience to learn ember yet. He had expected to roam freely around Kanto with his ten-year-old trainer, not hang around near Pallet Town fighting wild pokemon until it wasn’t even a challenge.
Emalthya paused before the long grass of Route 22 and looked around carefully before walking on. “We have to make sure we don’t go too far. Beyond here is the Pokemon League…”
Pheonix looked to the West, where the Indigo Plateau was just another mountain in the peaks between Kanto and Johto. The Pokemon League was for the best of the best. Could he be that strong one day?
“We would get slaughtered within one step of Route 23,” said Emalthya drably. “Let’s start training! Look out for Nidoran; they can poison you with their horns.”
The pokemon in Route 22 were not much more powerful than in Route 1, but they were more varied. As well as rattata, spearow and both genders of nidoran emerged from the grass to fight Pheonix. He fought skilfully against the rattata, having had experience fighting them earlier, but spearow were tough and scrappy opponents and nidoran were very free with their claws. While the nidoran’s claws were not capable of inflicting poison at this level, contact with their skin could do so since the pokemon had ability poison point.
Pheonix struck the first blow in a fight with a male nidoran who looked very angry for all his pink colouration. As his scratch attack hit, he felt his skin pierced by the nidoran’s spiky hide. He spun away from direct contact and staggered. Fast acting poison had entered his bloodstream and his vision blurred for an instant, then steadied.
“Pheonix?” called Emalthya in an oddly deep and slow voice. He turned to look at her and she suddenly loomed disproportionately large. He blinked and she resumed her normal dimensions. “I think you’ve been poisoned!”
She uncapped her canister of pokemon nuggets and threw one at the nidoran. “We forfeit! Have a nice day!” she cried and, folding her umbrella, she hitched her bag on her back, scooped up Pheonix and ran, hell for leather, down through the long grass back to the path leading to Viridian City and the pokemon centre.
With every sixth or so step Emalthya took, Pheonix’s eyes blurred and he experienced an odd sensation in his ears, like feedback, or an untuned radio. He was vaguely aware that he had just run away from a pokemon battle for the first time and he felt very embarrassed. He touched Emalthya’s sleeve and tried to put and apology in his eyes. She didn’t look down at him; focusing instead on keeping up her slackening pace.
She burst into the pokemon centre and laid Pheonix on the counter. It was only then, as Nurse Joy approached, that she realised that it had not even occurred to her to put Pheonix into his pokeball for the sprint back to town. It might have been easier that way, but perhaps she might not have run as fast as she had if she had not been looking at him and how sick he appeared.
“Nurse Joy, Pheonix has been poisoned by a nidoran! Will he be all right?”
Nurse Joy looked at Pheonix. Surely he had not even lost half of his health. His trainer looked almost as poorly as he did; she was sweating and panting, her clothes were all askew, and her face was ashen. “You’re just in time,” said Nurse Joy in a moderate tone, quite unlike her normal voice.
“Why?” asked Emalthya, horrified.
“Because we just started putting lunch on and by the time Pheonix has been treated, it will be ready and you can eat with us!” Nurse Joy answered in her bright manner.
Emalthya felt torn; she half wanted to slap Nurse Joy for making such a perverse joke and half wanted to hug her because Pheonix would be fine. She decided to hug Pheonix instead. “You will be one hundred percent fine,” she said, relieved.
“Did you win against the nidoran?” asked Nurse Joy conversationally as she checked Pheonix’s pulse and temperature.
“No, we ran as soon as he got poisoned,” replied Emalthya. Pheonix was astonished not to detect any trace of embarrassment in her voice. His shock was apparent to Emalthya, who said to him, “There is nothing wrong with running from a training battle with no good outcome. If it were a true battle, we could not run from it. That nidoran understood that. We can have a rematch with him later, if you want.”
Pheonix nodded and then stopped because it made his head feel like it was full of gelatinous liquid gushing about when he moved. He felt a little worse than he had been.
“There,” said Nurse Joy, sticking a large adhesive bandage over his small graze. “That will help you. The bandage releases antidote slowly, so you recover more quickly.”
When Pheonix was all healed, he and Emalthya returned to Route 22. Emalthya stopped Pheonix before he stepped into the tall grass. “Let’s take a moment to admire the Pokemon League again,” she said and they both turned to Indigo Plateau. “The Pokemon League is about being the best and having the best strategies to defeat your opponent. Learning from defeat is an important part of the Pokemon League experience. What we have learned today is that I freak out when you are poisoned, so it is not a good idea for us to continue fighting if there is a possibility of that happening. Do you agree?”
Pheonix nodded guiltily. Perhaps this would not have happened if he had paid more attention…
“In that case, we need to train in a different way so that the risk of you being poisoned is reduced to nearly zero.” Emalthya looked at Pheonix deliberately. “We will fight no more nidoran until you learn ember.”
Pheonix gawked at her. How could he learn ember, he had never used any flame attacks before?
“I know you can do this. I have faith in you.” Emalthya sat down beside Pheonix so they were on the same level. “Every charmander learns flame attacks some time. This is your time. You will learn to control it and be the best charmander you can be.” Her voice lowered to a tone of reverence, “One day, maybe, you will follow the first Pheonix into the Pokemon League of this region, and then into the Hall of Fame.”
Pheonix’s eyes shone with ambition. If learning ember was his first step to victory, he would take it.
Emalthya took a handful of grass and stood up. “I’ll drop this,” she said, indicating the grass, “and you try and blow it away. Just practise your blowing. Even if you can do ember, if you can’t blow it far enough, there’s no point to knowing it.”
Pheonix blew out air at handful after handful of grass Emalthya dropped. He felt blue in the face and perhaps he would have been, if his natural hue had not been orange. He knew Emalthya did not expect him to use ember immediately, but he became frustrated with himself that he could not produce even the smallest bit of flame.
They broke for a snack and then walked through the grass to the pool of water halfway along Route 22.
“We’re going to try something else now,” said Emalthya. I really hope this will work, she thought desperately. She was not a pokemon, after all, and had no experience with them.
“Put your shoulders back like this,” she instructed, drawing back her own shoulders. “Take a deep breath, all the way down, and then exhale it like ‘heh!’” Her last word was more of a guttural sound. “We’re focusing on trying to express flame, since we’ve done blowing it out.”
She did not mention the trouble it would have caused if they had practised blowing after he had learned ember. He might have burned himself, and he might still do so, Emalthya thought grimly.
Pheonix tried to produce the same sound, imitating Emalthya as best he could. His throat was beginning to feel raw and he was becoming discouraged when he felt something odd, and, with incredulous surety, he knew he could blow flame out of his mouth. He let his breath go, drew in another and forced it out of his chest with a small burst of flame which dispersed less than a tail-span from his face.
Nevertheless, Emalthya squealed with happiness and picked Pheonix up, dancing around with him in her arms. “You did it!”
Pheonix grinned, brimming with contentedness. As soon as Emalthya put him down, he used ember again and the flame was a little longer this time. He breathed in to try again-
“Stop!” cried Emalthya, drawing back from him.
Pheonix looked at her in confusion.
“You can’t go around breathing fire like that,” said Emalthya with barely stifled horror. “We’re in grasslands… if you set the grass on fire by accident, many pokemon will lose their homes; some might even die.” She tugged at her sleeve. “These things I wear, you could set them on fire very easily. You could… hurt me very easily.” Her eyes were sad and she looked like she hated what she was saying. “You have to be responsible.”
Pheonix looked as though he might cry. He knew she was not angry at him, knew she was not disappointed in him either. What he saw now was so much worse; his trainer was afraid of him. Tears did leak out of his face and he wondered if he should run into the grass and away from her so he would never hurt her.
Emalthya pulled him into her arms and cuddled him. “A pokemon trained with a trainer is much stronger than a wild pokemon, but that means they have to be more responsible with their greater powers. It’s a part of training.” She kissed the top of his head. “Are you all right?”
Pheonix brushed his face and looked at her solemnly. She took that as a ‘yes’.
For the rest of that afternoon, Pheonix and Emalthya practised Pheonix’s range when using ember. Pheonix would have preferred to have worked on the power of his attacks, but after Emalthya’s words he thought it was best to do as she said. She was his trainer and she knew best, even if training was extremely boring.
They camped in the bend of Route 22 that night. Emalthya sat with Pheonix on her lap, looking up at the stars of Kanto and talking about the Pheonix she had known before. Pheonix listened and that pokemon took on a hero-like quality. She told him that he might one day challenge and defeat the Pokemon League and then travel somewhere else and defeat the Pokemon League there- places like Sinnoh or Hoenn, the way the first Pheonix had. He might strike out and do something else; be the fastest flyer in all the land or carve beautiful stone statues.
“You could end up a travelling pokemon who defends the weak,” suggested Emalthya.
Pheonix sighed as he thought about all the possibilities, and then he was struck by the thought that in all her suggestions for his future, Emalthya did not seem to be with him. He could not think of a future without her. Maybe he would carve a statue of her when he was older. Maybe he would defeat the Elite Four with Emalthya and they would hold the trophy high together. That would be it, he thought as he crawled out of her arms and curled up next to her sleeping bag.
“Goodnight, dear,” said Emalthya and she slid into her sleeping bag beside Pheonix.
******
After a simple breakfast the next day, Emalthya asked Pheonix to practise ember a few times to warm up, then they headed into the tall grass to train against the pokemon there. Learning ember had been the turning point for success. Pheonix now defeated all rattata in one attack and all spearow and nidoran in two. He continued to battle until he could defeat the strongest spearow in one attack.
By mid-morning, Emalthya and Pheonix said goodbye to the pokemon of Route 22 and returned to the Viridian Pokemon Centre for a check-up. Nurse Joy was impressed at their determination to constantly train and also Emalthya’s responsibility to make sure her pokemon remained healthy. It was a poor trainer who trained too hard and harmed their pokemon, but a trainer who trained their pokemon only lightly to avoid injury was also poor.
Emalthya and Pheonix walked north from Viridian to Route 2.
“We’re moving on now,” said Emalthya cheerfully. “Here we should find pidgey and rattata and also weedle and caterpie. Route 2 also contains Viridian Forest, but we won’t be going in there today.”
Pheonix looked disappointed. This lousy crust of land is where we’ve ‘moved on’ to? Come on, two clumps of grass? But there’s more grass behind those trees. He pointed to the grass and trees beyond the trees hemming the western side of Route 2 into a narrow corridor leading to Viridian Forest.
“We can’t get there because we don’t know cut. If we want, when we get to Vermilion, we can travel through Diglet Cave, but for now, we only have this area. It’s important to train here against these bug pokemon, because there are a lot more bug pokemon in Viridian Forest and we should be prepared.”
Pheonix sighed. Boring…
“We’ll fight the pokemon here without using ember to try and strengthen you up physically,” said Emalthya.
Pheonix sighed again.
Emalthya looked down at him and smiled. “But we’re going to practise your ember. I think after lunch. How about that?”
Pheonix perked up a bit at the thought of lunch and nodded.
They spent the morning fighting pidgey, rattata, and caterpie with scratch attack and fighting weedle with ember due to its poison sting attack. Emalthya did not want to risk another poisoning for Pheonix.
Pheonix felt himself grow in strength as they battled, but it was still very boring. He looked forward to lunch because it would be a break from grinding low-level pokemon and a chance to use his ember attack. He wanted to use ember all the time because it was so fun, but he was afraid it might become out of control. When I am big, I won’t let my flame get out of control, but I am little now and I have to be careful, he decided.
After lunch, Emalthya and Pheonix set up a training field on a grassless portion of Route 2. Emalthya picked up an armful of long sticks from the trees dividing western Route 2 from eastern Route 2 and plunged one deep enough in the ground that it stood up by itself.
“We’ll practise your ember attack using these,” said Emalthya, dropping the other sicks in a pile far enough away that they wouldn’t get singed. “Vidirian Forest is a bad place to be setting things on fire as we like, so we will be practising precision and range.”
She guided Pheonic to stand a metre away from the vertical stick and asked him to use ember to create a flame long enough to reach the stick. Pheonix scorched it easily. Emalthya then had Pheonix move further back with every successful strike of the stick until he was too far away to hit it even with his strongest attack.
“That is a pretty good effort,” said Emalthya, impressed. “That’s about seven metres.” It was a generous estimate, but she hadn’t brought a tape measure with her on her Pokemon journey. “Do you feel like continuing?”
Pheonix stretched his arms and nodded. This kind of training was more interesting than battling weaklings. It was almost like he was battling himself.
Emalthya yanked up the first stick and put it aside. She stuck two fresh sticks up in the ground a metre apart and had Pheonix stand a metre away from them so there was one stick on either side.
“This time, we will practise how wife you can project your ember. Try and hit both of these sticls at once without turning your head.”
Pheonic was able to burn both sticks together in the first try. He was so successful that Emalthya had to pick them up out of the ground and roll them across the dirt track to smother the embers the fire attack had set in them. She set them up again, this time two metres apart. Pheonix had to work much harder to reach both of them at once, barely scorching them this time.
“Two metres is very respectable,” Emalthya said, seeing that Pheonix seemed a little disappointed in the result. “This last one is hardest. Still ready for more?”
Pheonix nodded again, determined to give a better performance. Their final exercise was one of endurance rather than testing the limits of his ember attack. Emalthya instructed Pheonix to use ember for as long as he could.
“I will do exercise for as long as you can keep up your ember,” said Emalthya.
Pheonix looked very impressed by this and set to his task with a will. As soon as he began his flame, Emalthya began to jog on the spot. Pheonix was so amused by this that he chortled and his attack broke.
“Pheonix! Concentrate!” Emalthya admonished.
Pheonix looked abashed. He wouldn’t have wanted Emalthya laughing at him. He began again with his ember attack. He was able to hold his flame for twenty seconds straight, enough time for Emalthya to do ten jumping jacks and four and a half squats. He tried the exercise a few more times, but he could not beat his best time.
“The point of endurance exercises,” said Emalthya, wiping her sweaty face, “is that tomorrow you will do better than you did today. The next day you will do better than tomorrow, and so on. If we keep at it, you’ll have a much easier time of mastering new, more powerful fire attacks, like flamethrower, heatwave, fire spin and fire blast!” She grinned at the thought of mastering some of the most powerful fire attacks.
Pheonix looked at her unenthusiastically. He had had trouble leaning the weakest fire attack, ember; did Emalthya really think he would learn the others with anything like ease?
He looked up at her face closely and knew that, yes; she did think he could do it. She thought he could do anything. He smiled and felt warm.
She smiled back at him. “I think there’s time for a few more battles before bed, don’t you?”
Pheonix groaned a little, but he agreed and they went back to the largest grassy area to scout out some pokemon to battle.
Before they retired for the night, Pheonic defeated three pidgey, two weedle, and a caterpie. He curled up next to Emalthya’s sleeping bag after eating dinner and submitting to a brief and ignoble wash with one of his trainer’s cleansing wipes.
Emalthya sighed. “I miss having a proper shower every day,” she said sadly. “I hope I don’t smell too bad. They never talk about not washing in the adventure stories.”
Pheonix surreptitiously sniffed himself. He didn’t think he stank. He didn’t think his trainer stank, either, but she used those cleansing cloths more than he did and washed her face as soon as they came to any source of fresh water. He supposed she was concentrating on the part of her skin people could see.
“There’s a Pokemon Centre on Route… Three,” continued Emalthya in an increasingly drowsy voice. “Just before you get into Mount Moon. Maybe… when we get there we can have a day off. Sleep in a bed and go for a nice rest in the tall grass… “
Pheonix waited for Emalthya to realise that resting in the tall grass would probably attract wild pokemon he would have to fight and so would not be terribly restful for him, but as he listened to her deep breathing, he knew she had dozed off. He shut his eyes and relaxed into sleep.
Emalthya woke up the next morning to avian hissing and the odd sensation of being hit hard in the side with a sack of feathers. She sat up, blinking away the sleep haziness in her eyes and unintentionally startling the pidgey who had chased a caterpie up to her sleeping bag. Pidgey leaped back, clacking its beak in frustration while Caterpie quailed back against Emalthya’s side.
“What’s going on,” she asked blearily. She looked around and found Pheonix sitting a little away from her, watching the spectacle with interest. “You just let them run around in our campsite?”
Pheonix looked like the thought to stop Pidgey and Caterpie from fighting had not occurred to him.
Emalthya sat upwith an unimpressed grump and caught Caterpie as it tried to scuttle away from her. The beady eyes of Pidgey followed her as she stood, stepped out of her sleeping bag, and carried Caterpie over to the nearest clump of tall grass and let it go.
Pidgey squawked in indignation and bolted towards the grass and its retreating prey.
Emalthya returned to her sleeping bag and rolled it up to stow it away. She spread out their tarpaulin so she and Pheonix could sit on it while they ate breakfast and sai, “Sleeping in a bed sounds better every time I think about it.”
After they broke camp, Emalthya set Pheonix to practise his ember attack before they headed into the lush and labyrinthine Viridian Forest. He showed improved control over his attacks, Emalthya noted in between her sets of jumping jacks, running on the spot, and squats.
I need to come up with some new exercises for me, she thought.
By midmorning, they took the rough road into the forest. While the diffused light entered the forest through the thick canopy should have made it feel closed in, Emalthya looked around and was overwhelmed with the immensity of the place. She knew that this forest was only a tiny blip on the map of Kanto, not even a route by itself, but when she was inside it she felt like it was endless.
Only narrow shafts of true sunlight fell between the leaves and Pheonix felt almost unpleasantly cool from the lack of direct sunshine. It was pretty here, he supposed, but it felt a bit dark and creepy.
“Isn’t this place beautiful?” Emalthya asked in a hushed voice.
Pheonix didn’t answer; he felt a little clammy and the shadow under the trees seemed to be perfect hiding places for who knew what.
“It reminds me of the place where I grew up; so green. Where I lived before… Before here,” she said hesitatingly. “It was green, but a parched green with a lot more brown. It was a hot place.”
Pheonix wondered if he would be more comfortable in the place Emalthya described. Maybe they could go there together some day.
“So,” said Emalthya in a clear energetic tone which rang oddly in the enclosed space. “On to training!”
They went to the west of the entrance first. Emalthya assured Pheonix that she had known it was a dead end. “It never hurts to look around. We might find something worth taking with us.”
They did not find anything they thought would benefit them to take and Emalthya looked a little downcast. “I thought we would find loads of things in here,” she grumbled. “We haven’t even seen a pokemon yet.”
They turned east to start on the winding path which lead through the whole forest and eventually to the continuation of Route 2 to Pewter City. Emalthya looked around, searching for pokemon to battle rather than admiring the scenery.
“Can you see any pokemon?” she asked Pheonix as they approached the first sharp turn north.
Pheonix shook his head, but every now and again h thought he might be seeing a pokemon. Whatever he saw always disappeared when he approached, though, and he wasn’t certain.
Suddenly something erupted out of the trees, but it was not a pokemon.
“Pokemon trainer!” crowed the boy, pushing back the brim of his wide straw hat. “I challenge you to a battle!”
Emalthya took a moment to recover from her from her shock at being accosted, then asked, “Have you been practising that speech long?”
The bug catcher boy shrugged. “It says everything you really need to. He paused, a sly smile creeping across his face. “This isn’t your first battle, is it?”
Emalthya’s lips pursed and twisted, unwilling to admit he was right, but his smile grew wider and she was goaded into replying. “Yes, we have never battled a trainer before; happy?”
The bug catcher could not believe his luck; he had been concerned when he had seen his opponent had a fire pokemon, but he was ecstatic to learn that it and its trainer were inexperienced. His confidence soared and he picked his hat off his head a little way, anticipation of a win making him sarcastically polite. “My name is Manny. We can battle right here whenever you want.”
Emalthya shrugged off her backpack and set it against a tree. “Pheonix,” she began in a low voice, “this is our first battle and there’s no refusing it, so we have to be ready. Are you ready?”
Pheonix nodded. He had a few nerves, but he would do his best. Surely all of his training would make him formidable… he hoped.
“We’re good to go when you are,” said Emalthya to Manny. “Our first one on one battle, Pheonix, how exciting!”
Manny scoffed rudely. “You might be fighting with one pokemon,m but I have three!”
“Oh,” said Emalthya quietly. “Three… of which kind of pokemon?”
“Three of the best,” boasted Manny. “A caterpie and two metapod!”
Emalthya closed her eyes and schooled her face to blankness, but her heart was racing. She opened her eyes and said, “Let’s battle, then.”
“Pheonic looked up at his trainer uncertainly. She didn’t sound like herself. He stood in front of her, facing Manny, and waited to see who his opponent would be.
Predictably, Manny sent out a metapod. Metapod was about the length of Pheonix’s tail including his flame and as high as his waist. Still, it glared aggressively at Pheonix.
“Pheonix, use ember!” said Emalthya, her voice strained with nervousness and something Pheonix could not identify.
At the same time, Manny called out to Metapod, “Metapod, harden!”
Metapod braced all of its muscles, but its effort was all but useless against the stream of flame Pheonix blew at it, singeing its hard carapace.
“Oh no!” cried Manny. “We can beat it, Metapod! Use harden!”
Emalthya felt very sorry for the poor Metapod with no ability at all to fight them, only to prolong the battle. “Pheonix, use scratch to finish this. Let’s not let it suffer.”
Pheonix spread his claws and slashed down at Metapod while it braced itself twice as hard. The blows scored the side of its shell and Pheonix thought for a moment that Metapod’s harden defence was too strong for his attack to cause any damage. Then Metapod fell sideways: knocked out.
Emalthya took a deep breath to stop herself shouting with joy: it would be in poor taste to celebrate now, and she felt bad for Metapod. Instead, she said, “Good job, Pheonix.”
Pheonix stared at her worriedly. Her face looked stiff and she was even paler than usual, though it may have been the shade of the forest. He was not an expert on humans, but she didn’t seem well to him.
Manny recalled his defeated Metapod and threw out a new pokeball. “You won’t have an easy time battling my caterpie!” he said as he caught the ball on the rebound.
Manny’s caterpie was smaller than his metapod and it arched menacingly at Pheonix despite being scarcely the length of his spread arms. Emalthya admired Caterpie’s gumption and wondered if it was one of its trainer’s traits rubbing off on it.
“Pheonix, use ember again,” said Emalthya.
Pheonix exhaled a steady stream of flame at Caterpie as Manny commanded his pokemon to use string shot. A small and speedy bug type, Caterpie did shoot string shot at Pheonix before the ember attack hit, but the flames charred the sticky threads to cooked and twisted goop falling to the ground before scorching Caterpie. Being at a lower evolution with lower health points and defense statistics, Caterpie fainted immediately after taking the ember attack.
“Great effort,” praised Emalthya.
Pheonix wondered why this sort of battle was so different from when he battled wild pokemon. Caterpie and Metapod had been at higher levels than wild pokemon he had experience battling, but they had not fought very well. He looked apprehensively at Manny, wondering if he had saved his scariest pokemon for last.
“It’s all up to you,” said Manny to his last pokeball while he recalled Caterpie. “Go, Metapod!” he threw the last pokemon and a metapod emerged, shiny and green.
“Last one, Pheonix, use ember!”
Pheonix bathed Metapod in flames, completely bemused by Manny’s choice of opponent.
“Don’t let it win, Metapod!” demanded Manny. “Use harden! Outlast the fire!”
It was a foolish plan. Pheonix might not have known ember attack for very long, but he had practised it and trained himself and could hold his attack for up to twenty seconds. It only took fifteen seconds for Metapod to faint.
Pheonix ended his attack when Metapod fell over; shutting his jaws like a trap. He looked enquiringly at Emalthya, wanting to know if that really was the end of the battle.
Emalthya stooped down and hugged him loosely. “You won!” she said, but she didn’t sound like herself. He licked her cheek and she shuddered. “Ew!” Then she laughed and kissed his smooth head. Pheonix imitated her shudder and exclamation, but he grinned. He didn’t really think a kiss was gross.
“You win,” said Manny flatly. “But we will do better next time! We’ll train harder, you’ll see!”
“I’m sure you will,” agreed Emalthya.
Manny stiffly got out his wallet. “Uh, well…”
“Seventy is fine,” said Emalthya sympathetically. She would not like to be paying out her own money to someone who defeated her.
Manny brightened a little and handed her some coins. Seventy pokedollars was worth about seven dollars where Emalthya was from. It wasn’t even enough for an antidote. But Manny was a kid and his prize money was probably some kind of pocket money from his parents.
“Thank you,” said Emalthya. “Maybe we will see you later.”
“Yeah,” said Manny. Then he waved goodbye and bolted out of the forest to Viridian Pokemon centre.
As soon as he was gone, Emalthya broke into startled, almost hysterical laughter. “We won!” she gasped happily. “Our first battle and they didn’t even get an attack in! You did such a great job, Pheonix; imagine winning our first battle!” She spun around like she could not keep still.
Pheonix danced around with her, grinning proudly. Emalthya no longer sounded strange to him and he wondered if she had been trying not to gloat this whole time. Did that mean she knew he would win from the start?
“See, this is the result of hard work and training.” Emalthya paused and gave Pheonix a slightly guilty look. “It’s also the benefit of choosing a bug catcher as your first opponent… If Manny had been a better strategist, he never would have challenged us; he wouldn’t have wanted to risk it if you actually did know any fire moves. He underestimated us to his defeat. All of this is called strategy, but we should study strategy theory when we have trained as much as we can bear practically.”
Pheonix stared at Emalthya. Did she know everything? It’s not possible for someone to know everything. I think. She knows a lot about battling and training, though. He resolved to trust her more in future and try not to let himself get so bored with training.
“Great!” said Emalthya brightly, still sporting a grin which looked painfully wide. “Now, let’s go on exploring the forest!”
Foring a path north, Emalthya and Pheonix met another bug catcher and defeated his weedle and caterpie combination. Again, Emalthya accepted a very small amount of prize money, to the bug catcher’s relief.
They reached a split in the path soon afterwards. They could continue north, though Emalthya said that path looped around and met the other path heading west. They took the western path, which almost immediately hit a path reaching from north to south. Emalthya took the new path south as heading north would have looped them back to where they had started before taking the western path.
They met, battled, and defeated another bug catcher when they turned the bend in the path and walked north. The path turned twice more before Emalthya and Pheonix came to the exit. They emerged from Viridian Forest into Route 2 to find the morning spent. It was difficult to judge the passage of time in the leafy shade in the forest so they were both surprised that it was already early afternoon.
“Pewter City is just ahead. I think we should press on, rest at the pokemon centre, and then come back to the forest to train your metal claw attack. What do you think?”
Pheonix was not thrilled at the thought of more training, but Emalthya had told him that learning metal claw was the only way for them to pass through Mount Moon successfully, and he was very tired of staying in the same place. So he nodded his head and walked with his trainer. She had proved to him that she knew what she was talking about.
Immediately upon entering the pokemon centre, they were greeted by Pewter City’s Nurse Joy.
“Hi, Nurse Joy,” said Emalthya. “We’re here for a quick check-up before going back to training. Do you mind taking a picture of us?”
Nurse Joy was surprised to be asked to be a photographer, but she laughed gaily when Emalthya explained her desire to have a picture of herself and Pheonic at every new pokemon centre.
“That certainly is a way to keep track,” said Nurse Joy while she readied Emalthya’s poketech. “Smile.”
Emalthya and Pheonix beamed at the camera lens. Emalthya accepted the poketech back gladly and Nurse Joy lead Pheonix away for his tests. While she waited, Emalthya had a shower in the washrooms provided for pokemon trainers by the pokemon centre. It was not a short shower and she felt much lighter after scrubbing her skin pink and giving her hair a much needed wash. Pheonix was waiting for her in the lobby by the time she was finished. Emalthya apologised for keeping him waiting, but he could tell by her contented expression that she was not sorry for taking the time for herself. He didn’t mind too much; there was no rule saying a trainer had to spend every moment of every day with their pokemon. Most trainers kept their pokemon in their pokeballs so Emalthya was spending a lot more time with him than another trainer would have.
Pheonix had spent his time waiting for her looking out the windows of the pokemon centre. Pewter City was much more built up than Viridian City; a city based on the amount of people choosing to live near the wilderness. As more people moved to the area, businesses grew to accommodate them and soon enough Viridian was called a city. However, there were no real attractions in Viridian apart from the pokemon gym, thought it looked to Pheonix like the new trainer café would open soon.
Pewter City was a scientific hub with amazing scenery of the mountains as well as a science museum to attract tourists. It was also the first stop for people visiting Mount Moon. Lately, Pewter had acknowledged the importance of tourists for its economy, especially at a time when acquiring new grants for their scientific pursuits lead them to battle in a popularity contest against scientists in Hoenn studying space travel and space pokemon, and scientists in Kalos researching additional and temporary evolutions for pokemon whose evolutionary lines had been believed to be well established. Rocks and amber were quickly becoming old news and the Pewter scientists found themselves working on unpopular research.
They had attempted to revitalise the city to be more attractive and tourist friendly with vibrant pots of flowers replacing the rocks and bare earth which had until then separated the various buildings. The soil in the mountains was excellent for growing plants and though the gardeners in Pewter lacked the subtlety and refinement of those in celadon City, Pewter became known for growing very hardy plants. These plants were popular with people who were not adept at growing plants themselves and wanted something which would be difficult for them to kill accidentally.
All in all, it looked like a pretty interesting place and Pheonix was looking forward to exploring it with his trainer.
“That was a great shower,” said Emalthya, tossing her hair to air it. “I think we should come back here tonight after training. How about that?”
Pheonix made a sound of agreement. Sleeping in a bed sounded like a nice change.
They went for a walk around Pewter after lunch at the pokemon centre to enjoy the view and also the fresher, freer air of the open mountains after being in a closed forest for a day. On the way back to Viridian Forest, they came across a group of workmen who were replacing a wooden picket fence around a plot of flowers. Emalthya noticed the old planks in a pile to the side.
“Excuse me,” she asked, “would you mind if we took these to use for our training? If you’re throwing them out and it’s all the same to you?”
The men smiled at such an odd request and let her take as many as she wanted. Emalthya wanted as many as she could carry and loaded herself up before asking if Pheonix would carry some planks as well. They were a bit long and cumbersome for him, but he carried them lengthways across his shoulders.
Emalthya thanked the men and she and Pheonic returned to the forest. They continued south on the path until it turned around and they set up a training area in the dead end clearing a short way into the trees.
Emalthya dropped her fence pickets in a pile and then shed her backpack with more care. “I asked for these so you could practise your metal claw on them instead of these trees. Better to hurt a dead tree than a live one.”
Pheonix was confused. Dead trees? Live trees? It didn’t really matter; trees couldn’t feel pain… could they? He put his pickets down carefully and looked nervously around at the forest surrounding them. Did trees have feelings? Was that why Emalthya told him to be careful with his fire attacks in the forest? Could trees just rise up and-
“It’s also recycling,” Emalthya continued. “So it was very good all around. She began erecting a few of the pickets in a line. “Metal claw is basically an advanced version of your scratch attack. If you think about attacks, a lot of them are related to each other in some way.”
Pheonix paid all of his attention to his trainer to avoid thinking about sentient trees and what they might think of a fire pokemon.
“Take take down, for example. Take down is a destructive normal type move, like scratch, which deals damage upon the opponent and also upon the user as recoil damage. Double edge is the advanced version of take down, which is more effective than the original, both in recoil damage and damage dealt to an opponent.
“Scratch is the base attack for many attacks of many different types including shadow claw, which is a ghost attack, and dragon claw, which is a dragon attack. Because you can use scratch, you should be able to learn some of the related attacks if you want, as long as they aren’t opposing your own type, and even then there are exceptions…”
Pheonix hoped he was following this as well as he thought he was. He didn’t know there was so much of this kind of leaning that went into being a pokemon. How did his trainer know so much by heart, without the computers and books in Professor Oak’s lab? She wasn’t even a pokemon!
“Now, I would like to practise your scratch attack on these fence posts, and to make sure we have our best shot at mastering metal claw, I would like you to teach me how to use your scratch move.”
This was the last thing Pheonix had been expecting to hear. Him? Pheonix? Teach his trainer? That was ridiculous… As he thought about it, it occurred to him that it might be fun. He stepped up to the fence Emalthya had built and extended his arm out with an elaborate gesture. He was entertained when Emalthya stood beside him and mimicked his movement, then he brought his arm down sharply on the fence, scoring the white paint off with his hard claws. Emalthya imitated him, but did not strike the wood. Pheonix looked at her soft, pink hands and her thin, translucent fingernails and judged them to be utterly useless for attacking, though admittedly quite useful for other things.
Pheonix leaned his body back with exaggerated slowness, raised his left arm and then brought it down upon the fence as he had his right arm, completing the two slashing movements of the slash attack. Emalthya repeated his actions.
“I see,” said Emalthya. “It could be that when you draw back your arms you’re charging up the attack. Let’s keep practicing.”
They both performed the attacks repeatedly. The fence was soon covered in marks and paint peeled off in thin curls. They were still training when it became too dark to see. Night came early to the forest. They set up a few small fires so they could continue.
Pheonix suddenly felt something odd in his claws; some coolness, some stiffness when he used scratch on the fence. The top section of the fencepost he had attacked broke apart into woodchips. He gave a cry of surprise and delight; he had used metal claw.
“Fantastic!” crowed Emalthya. “Once you’re confident using metal claw on the wood, you can try it on those boulders by the trees. Then you should be ready for Mount Moon!”
Mount Moon, thought Pheonix excitedly. Somewhere new. He continued to scratch at the fence posts, using metal claw successfully. He grinned widely, proud that he had caught on so quickly.
“We should get going in a bit if we want to sleep at the pokemon centre,” said Emalthya, checking her poketech. It was almost six o’clock.
Pheonix nodded, but he wanted to progress to using metal claw on rock before he slept. He went to the nearest boulder and brought his claws forcefully down upon it.
Pheonix’s shrill howl of pain reverberated through the air and sent pidgey flying from the trees to find somewhere quieter to roost for the night. Metal claw had not come into effect and Pheonix’s claws had taken a terrible blow from the boulder.
Emalthya dashed over to him and took his claws in her cool hands. His claws were not bleeding, but they were warm and looked tender. “Over here to this pool of water,” she said, steering him to one of the many ponds in Viridian Forest and dipping his claws into the cold water.
He winced and sighed quietly.
“We should give it a rest now; it’s too dark to see anything anymore. We can do it again tomorrow.”
Pheonix frowned at her and shook his head. He would not rest until he got it right and showed that boulder what it really was! A rock!
He stomped over to the fence and began to scratch away at it. Emalthya watched his sadly. He didn’t look like he wanted to go back to Pewter. She unpacked their camp and set out dinner for both of them, but Pheonix did not come over for his share when she called out to him. Emalthya left Pheonix’s portion out and began to get ready for bed. She said goodnight to him, but wasn’t certain he heard her. Either was, he did not reply or come to bed.
It was hours later when Pheonix finished practicing metal claw on the fence posts. He had had no choice; the wooden posts had been effectively mulched by his onslaught. He could no longer feel pain in his claws; he could not feel them at all. He felt very low on energy, like a game boy colour which still worked despite its red power light flickering on and off as the batteries ran out. He decided that he would try his attack on the boulder again. If he had not mastered the attack by now, he didn’t think he ever would. With trepidation, he approached the rock. It showed no sign of his previous failed attack. He stared it down the way he would stare down a pokemon opponent. Then he struck, not giving himself enough time to think about the impending pain if his attack was unsuccessful. His claws slashed down with twin flashes of silver and puffs of rock dust rose from the rock accompanied by a loud, grating noise. When the dust cleared, scores in the store became visible. Pheonix had mastered metal claw.
Elated, Pheonix turned to Emalthya to celebrate his achievement, but she was sleeping, he face turned away. Despite the sound of the rock grating, she had not woken. She must be tired, Pheonix thought. He suddenly remembered that she had wanted to sleep in the pokemon centre, in a proper bed, and that they had planned to go there after training. He felt bad. He had only thought about himself when he had stayed to train, but she had not insisted on going where she wanted, or in stopping him. She had let him do what he wanted.
He found his dinner where she had left it, untouched by any wild pokemon. He must have made an intimidating figure, slashing constantly and destroying things. They had not wanted to go near him.
He ate his food, not realising how hungry he was until he put it in his mouth. The meal was gone very quickly and Pheonix went back to the pond for a drink. When he lifted the water to his mouth in his claws, he noticed how dirty they were. He was covered in sawdust, paint flecks, and stone dust. He washed his claws and face as well as he could in the darkness and then took Emalthya’s small cooking pot, filled it with pond water, and used it to put out the fires which he had left burning during the night. They were burning low and cast little light around the forest clearing.
He was used to the forest now and was not disconcerted by the enclosing trees. The night was much darker without the stars.
Pheonix stretched himself out beside Emalthya, laying his head on the folded arms of her jumper, which she set out for his use. The rest of the jumper was made up as Emalthya’s own pillow. His eyes fluttered closed and he hoped he and Emalthya would sleep in the next morning.
Sleeping on the ground outdoors makes it easy to rise early, offering little to induce lingering. So it was that the next day, Emalthya rose, not quite as early as she might have done if she had slept outside the forest, where the trees shielded her from the first rays of the sun, but a good deal earlier than Pheonix would have liked. He felt her wake, but she left him on the tarpaulin with her jumper while she changed into her day clothes behind a tree out of sight of the path and then packed away her sleeping bag.
She noticed the shredded remains of their entire stock of wooden posts when she went to the pond to fill up her water bottle and wash before breakfast. When she returned to the campsite, Pheonix was very unwillingly conscious.
“Hey,” said Emalthyam offering him a cup of water from her just filled bottle. “It looks like you did a lot of training last night. Did it make you feel better?”
Pheonix drank from the cup and then nodded, He was abruptly concerned that she was angry at him for not doing what they had agreed to do. Though it was true that staying up to practice had contented him, he was worried now.
“Good,” said Emalthya. She began to unpack breakfast. “How are your hands? I mean claws. You know what I mean.”
Pheonix held his claws out for her to see. They were a little tender and swollen, but he could feel them again, which more than made up for the discomfort.
“Our first stop should be the pokemon centre,” said Emalthya, holding his claws up so she could see them. “Until then, this should hold you.” She lightly kissed the palms of his claws. “A kiss always worked for me.”
Pheonix took his claws back and held them against his chest. He was sure now that she was not angry at him. Nobody had ever kissed his injuries better before. He didn’t know how, but his claws really did feel a little better.
They ate breakfast, broke camp, and travelled out of Viridian Forest to Pewter City. They checked in at the Pokemon centre first, where Nurse Joy’s pretty brow creased in disapproval at the state of Pheonix’s claws. She told Emalthya and Pheonix that Pheonix should rest them for a day, but he would be completely fit the next day.
Emalthya felt uncomfortable asking to stay the night, in case Nurse Joy thought she was an unfit trainer, but she did anyway. Nurse Joy gave them a room key and Emalthya locked her bag inside so she wouldn’t have to carry it. She took only her umbrella for use against the sun, and her wallet.
Outside, Pheonix looked around the city, searching for something to do. What did one do in a city?
He pointed to the blooming flower beds and he and Emalthya walked along and admired them for a little while.
“There’s the Pewter Museum,” said Emalthya. She was looking at a large, stately building in the corner of the city furthest from both roads leading south and east, pushed up almost against the foot of the mountains. She and Pheonix headed towards it and entered through the very fancy doors.
“Good morning!” the pretty receptionist greeted them. “Will you be wanting an adult pass?”
“Ah, no, actually,” said Emalthya. “We just came in to have a quick look.”
Pheonix glanced up at her, wondering why they could not go further inside. From the lobby, where they stood, he could see a few of the exhibits, including some really impressive skeletons of pokemon he had never seen before.
“If you change your mind, the adult ticket is 80 pokedollars,” the receptionist replied helpfully.
“Thank you,” said Emalthya before turning her attention towards the wall of brochures, incongruous decoration in the grand lobby with its overshined floors and richly varnished panelled wood fittings. “Ooh, they have exhibits here from Sinnoh and Hoenn, look,” she said, showing Pheonix the pamphlet she held.
Pheonix looked at the brochure uninterestedly. He could see a huge skeleton of a flying pokemon and wanted to have a closer look. He didn’t understand why they could not go in.
“Hello, Kumi, I am off to lunch, I should be back in an hour.” Pheonix turned to look at the man who spoke, apparently to the receptionist. He was a tall man wearing a brown suit. Emalthya ignored him. “What’s this?” asked the man, noticing Pheonix and Emalthya. “Going into the museum, or just come out?”
“Neither,” said Emalthya, turning to him. “We’re just reading the pamphlets. Then we’ll go.”
“This one looks curious,” said the man, approaching and smiling down at Pheonix. “Why don’t you go inside?”
Emalthya closed the pamphlet and put it back in its holder. “Because it’s a bit expensive,” she said flatly. She gave Pheonix an apologetic look. “Maybe we can come back after we see the professor in Saffron, Pheonix, after we win some more prize money.”
The man looked from Emalthya, to Pheonix and the still puzzled expression the pokemon wore, to the receptionist, pointedly not paying direct attention to them. “You’re going to Saffron City?” he asked conversationally.
“We have to see Professor Myrtle at Sylph Co,” explained Emalthya.
“I know of Professor Myrtle!” said the man jovially. “He is researching fossils and contacts us from time to time. Are you helping with his research?”
“We’re just delivering something,” said Emalthya.
“Deliveries are very important, too. I don’t know where we’d be if we couldn’t communicate our discoveries with each other. We’d probably invent the wheel so often nothing else would get done! As an aid to a fellow scientist, I would like to show you around the museum.”
Emalthya looked at him in great discomfort. 80 pokedollars was not a lot of money, but she had to save every pittance she could in case she never got another job from Professor Oak. To avoid mentioning out loud that she didn’t want to pay, she said, “But you’re on your lunch break, we wouldn’t want you not to eat.”
The man smiled wryly. “I’m sure that my lab can cover me. I just need a good stretch of my legs. “
“Then we would be glad to accept your offer,” said Emalthya with embarrassment, almost mumbling her words.
“And I am pleased to escort you,” said the man. He introduced himself as Professor Imahara and he seemed to have a great time showing Emalthya and Pheonix the exhibits. Pheonix especially liked the Aerodactyl fossil which had been articulated and posed as though the skeleton might fly away and start a rampage. Professor Imahara showed them the kabutops fossil and gave them a brief but interesting overview of the exhibits of Kanto earth samples, explaining that parts of Kanto were excellent for finding fossils, and other parts were not suitable at all, unlike the soil of Sinnoh, which was very good for fossils and ruins of all kinds, being very loamy and moist and mostly undisturbed.
Upstairs was the space exhibition featuring a model of the ill-fated Columbia space shuttle and some information on the Hoenn Space Program.
“They say that the Hoenn sciemtists,” began Professor Imahara in a low voice, “encountered a space pokemon. A pokemon from space!”
“Yeah, Deoxys,” said Emalthya without thinking. Professor Imahara stared at her, slightly slack jawed and Pheonix looked surprised. He couldn’t imagine anything living out in space.
“How do you know that?” asked Professor Imahara. “I thought you weren’t ah…” he paused, trying to think of a way to continue which didn’t sound like he was calling Emalthya stupid. “I didn’t think you were a researcher. Are you Professor Myrtle’s aide after all?”
“No, I just, I just know things,” said Emalthya, a little embarrassed. “I have done a lot of study on pokemon, but Pheonix is my first actual pokemon. I know a lot about a lot of pokemon, but outside Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto, my knowledge is limited.”
“I don’t know what this museum can teach you, then, that you don’t already know,” chuckled Imahara, still a bit surprised.
“It’s fascinating to see the actual remains of pokemon!” insisted Emalthya. She pointed downstairs to the fossils. “The bladed claws of a kabutops, bigger than my own arm! How terrifying they must have been! The wings of an aerodactyl, the way they must have sounded so loud while they hunted you. Learning from books is one thing, but seeing this is so amazing and we are so grateful for your time, Professor,” she finished humbly.
“Not at all,” said Professor Imahara. “Please look around for as long as you like. I will go down to my lunch.”
“Thank you so much,” replied Emalthya and Pheonix grinned up at Professor Imahara and nodded his own thanks. Emalthya and Pheonix stayed at the museum for a little longer, Emalthya explaining things to Pheonix by reading the plaques in the space exhibit. Then they returned to the ground floor and examined the fossils again. Emalthya explained what kinds of pokemon the ancient pokemon ate, what attacks they used, what they were like, and how, at places like the museum where they now stood, scientists were cloning them to give them new life. Phehonix looked terrified.
“We shouldn’t have any problems with them, darling, because they would be in the keeping of skilled trainers. They wouldn’t be off hunting for little lizard pokemon like you, or soft humans like me.”
Despite this, Pheonix was very happy when, that night, he and Emalthya bedded down for the night in the pokemon centre, behind locked doors and sturdy ceilings.
*******
Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 12:03 am
Mount Moon rose above the road in front of Emalthya and Pheonix the next day when they began to walk east on Route 3. It was a rocky, hilly route filled with ledges, pits from fallen meteors, and many pokemon trainers.
“Are you up for this?” asked Emalthya.
Pheonix growled in response, making grasping motions with his claws and arching his back. He looked ready to fight. They both marched, heads held high, into the route. Immediately, they were set upon by a young girl with two pidgey. She put up a fair fight, but Pheonix used metal claw on them; a super effective attack. They went down quickly. Emalthya, as she had in their earlier battles, generously offered to take only prize money the girl could afford, but she shook her head proudly.
“My pokemon will be stronger because of you, and my daddy can give me more pocket money. The sooner I get strong enough to take my pokemon and fly away, the sooner I can get to Celadon and shop there. You earned this.” She handed Emalthya 135 pokedollars and sprinted back to Pewter to visit the pokemon centre.
Emalthya looked at the crinkled notes in her hands. “Wow,” she said quietly. “We shouldn’t let this victory give us a big head,” she continued sharply. “Fight each battle seriously and with respect for our opponents!”
Pheonix immediately straightened and looked serious, but inwardly he was delighted by how easy it had been to defeat the pidgey and get his trainer a lot of money.
The next trainer to accost them was a familiar face. He was a bug trainer they had met and defeated in Viridian Forest. His bug pokemon had become stronger, stronger enough, in Emalthya’s opinion, to evolve, but Pheonix used ember on them and they curled up in defeat without landing much damage.
“You beat me again!” cried the bug catcher. Instead of giving them another 60 pokedollars like before, he handed Emalthya 100 pokedollars. “I feel bad for giving you so little before,” he admitted. “I told my big brother about it and he said I should make it up to you if I saw you.”
“You didn’t have to,” said Emalthya, blushing.
“I think I did,” said the bug catcher. Then he, too, ran back towards Pewter.
The next trainer was resolutely looking in the other direction. Emalthya and Pheonix could easily have passed him by, but Emalthya, after getting approval from Pheonix, made a point of saying hello to him and he drew her into a battle. He had a rattata and an ekans, which neither Pheonix nor Emalthya had seen before.
“Wow!” said Emalthya, admiring the ekans. “He looks so cool!”
“Thanks!” said the youngster. “I won’t take it easy on you for saying that!”
Pheonix was concerned by the ekans’s speed and its ability to twist around him like he was surrounded.
“Pheonix, use ember as wide as you can, and spin around!” called Emalthya.
He obeyed her and the attack caused the ekans to fall back outside its striking distance, but within Pheonix’s. He used ember, extending his fire blast to the edge of his range, and defeated it.
As the youngster made his way back to the pokemon centre, Emalthya asked Pheonix if he wanted a rest, which he refused. He marched up to the next waiting trainer, hopping over a ledge to do so, and scowled at him. Emalthya followed him quickly.
The trainer Pheonix had cornered was a bug catcher and had been in a prime position to watch Emalthya’s previous battles, but he fought hard, despite knowing he was outmatched by type. He had four pokemon and perhaps thought that sheer numbers would win the day for him. He was wrong; two of his pokemon were in the cocoon stage of evolution and were unable to attack back, and because he had so many pokemon, their levels were less than those of the other trainers Emalthya and Pheonix had battled that day. He gave them less prize money than the other bug catcher, but he also gave them a sandwich he had brought from home, saying that, as he was going home to look after his pokemon, he wouldn’t need it.
Emalthya insisted that Pheonix take a break after that and they both ate half the sandwich, which was jam, and quite nice, though Emalthya felt a bit bad for the boy’s mother, who would have to feed her son lunch twice that day. Having successfully defeated half the trainers on the route, Emalthya felt a lingering doubt; could it really be this easy to get through? Pheonix couldn’t be such a strong pokemon by himself, could he? She shook off these thoughts and simply repeated to Pheonix that they must persevere humbly and respect their opponents before jumping down another ledge and climbing back up to where they had battled the youngster. Here, they met another youngster, and Emalthya’s instincts were proven right in thinking that their opponents were becoming tougher.
This youngster had only one pokemon, a very strong spearow. Pheonix used metal claw on it and it went down after a few hits, but it was very fast and agile and Pheonix was very tired afterwards. For every hit he had made, one had missed. Thankfully, the spearow had not landed any direct hits on Pheonix, trying instead to avoid his slashing claws. They were paid well for their trouble though; the youngster handed Emalthya over two hundred pokedollars, including some coins.
After a rest and some water, Pheonix and Emalthya continued down the hill to meet a lass eagerly awaiting their arrival.
“I saw you defeat all those others,” she said excitedly. “I will beat you, though!”
The lass’s pokemon were much weaker than the spearow had been, but phoenix was tired. He defeated her rattata easily, but her nidoran was wily and tried rushing at him to poison him with her horns.
“Use ember as wide as you can in front of her,” instructed Emalthya. “Make a wall of fire!”
Pheonix obeyed, watching around the flame to see if the nidoran would try and run around it.
“Now jump through the fire and slash with metal claw!”
Pheonix leaped through the fire and lunged at the astonished nidoran, taking her by surprise and landing a devastating hit. As she ran away from him to avoid another attack with his claws, Pheonix blew fire at her. It licked up her back leg and she fell down and did not get up.
Sally was as shocked as her nidoran and handed Emalthya nearly as much money as the youngster before had. “Don’t you tell anyone about this,” she said in a threatening voice, or as threateningly as she could with her throat thick with tears. She ran off somewhere away from the path and Emalthya assumed she had gone to have a cry.
The last trainer on the hill was another bug catcher with pokemon strong enough to evolve, but Pheonix, although tired, was much stronger than he had been when he had begun battling that morning and defeated them easily with ember. When the bug catcher had paid Emalthya her prize and fled, Emalthya pointed down the hill. “Look, there’s the long grass I was telling you about! Want to go have a look?”
Pheonix was very tired by now and he did not want to fight anymore. He wearily shook his head.
“That’s fine,” said Emalthya soothingly. Want to go back to Pewter pokemon centre, or do you want to push on? There’s a pokemon centre around this corner, shouldn’t be more than twenty minutes away.”
Pheonix stumped off again in the direction they had headed towards all day and Emlathya smiled. Her stubborn little Pheonix. He would go until he stopped and then he could rest without worry.
But hidden in the grass was a trap they unwittingly walked into.
“Ahah!” cried the lass as she launched herself from the long grass. “I have been waiting for you all day! Now you’ll be tired after beating all those pokemon and my squishy wishy will get all your experience,” she said greedily. This appeared to be a regular thing for her; in fact, she had a hide like a deer blind set up in the grass.
Emalthya groaned. Once a trainer found you, you couldn’t run away, and if this trainer approached weary travellers often, she might be very strong.
The lass was a strong trainer, though with only one pokemon; a jigglypuff.
“Look, how adorable!” cried Emalthya, in transports of delight, when the lass released her jigglypuff. Pheonix looked at the pink balloon thing. It had bulbous eyes and looked like a bubble you would make with your gum. He wondered what the big deal about it was. He was soon to learn.
Immediately, the jigglypuff used sing and the next thing Pheonix knew, he was lying on the ground and his head hurt and the jigglypuff had just hit him in the side with pound attack. His claws felt off, too.
“Oh, you’re awake!” cried Emalthya, her hands clenched in anxiety. She sounded like she had been shouting. Had she been trying to wake him up? In fact, she had been trying to wake him; the jigglypuff had used sing, then pound, then disable, and pound again, and Pheonix had snoozed straight through it.
“You’ve had one of your attacks disabled,” called Emalthya. “Try them out to see which one, and quickly! We don’t want her to sing you to sleep again!”
No, Pheonix did not want to sleep again. He squared off against the bubblegum bubble and blew a plume of flame at it. The jigglypuff chittered in fury but he and his trainer let out a sigh of relief; he could still use ember.
“Try metal claw now!”
Before the last of the fire cleared, Pheonix launched forward to slash down at it with metal claw- only to have the attack fail.
“Metal claw is disabled,” said Emalthya. “That’s fine, keep using ember!”
The jigglypuff would not have a bar of a second ember attack. She puffed herself up and began to sing sweetly again. Pheonix hesitated, bracing himself for the sweet music, but it had no effect.
“It missed, try ember again!”
Pheonix sent a shot of flame towards the jigglypuff, scorching its belled-out sides. It flinched and cried out and desperately used disable again, which failed, as Pheonix already had had a move disabled.
“Ember again!”
Pheonix cockily approached the jigglypuff to make a close-range attack and it lashed out at him with a pound attack. He took the attack in the stomach and belched fire over the jigglypuff, which shrieked, fell, rolled, and finally, fled behind its trainer, defeated.
“That… that…” said the lass, shocked. “That wasn’t fair,” she said quietly.
“About as fair as hiding and waiting for tired and weak trainers to walk past,” retorted Emalthya. “Still allowed by the rules, but maybe not the nicest thing to do.”
The lass frowned. “I won’t have you talk that way to other people about me,” she said. “Don’t tell anyone I’m hiding here, please? People made fun of my pink pokemon, but when we’re done training, she’ll be so strong, no-one will laugh!”
“What’s with lasses today not wanting to know they were defeated?” asked Emalthya rhetorically.
“Do you mean Minny?” asked the lass. “I saw her fight you earlier, she likes to pretend she’s the best, she wouldn’t want it getting out she was defeated.” The lass dug out her purse and handed Emalthya some money. “Is this enough?”
It was easily as much money as the spearow trainer had given them and Emalthya was happy to accept it. They parted from the lass and continued east. Pheonix was much more tired than he had been before his non-consensual nap, and he smarted where the jigglypuff had hit him. It was a good lesson to learn, though, and he would not take it easy on an opponent again.
The continued east until Mount Moon blocked the way and then turned north, following the path until it turned into Route 4 and, all of a sudden, they saw the bright red roof of the Route 4 pokemon centre.
The approached the Nurse Joy of Route 4 and, without waiting to wash up (though Emalthya did drag a comb through her hair), asked her to take a picture of them on Emalthya’s poketech.
That Nurse Joy had taken several quick pictures and then asked them to move to a different spot in the pokemon centre with more flattering light. It turned out that this Nurse Joy enjoyed photography as a hobby, which made her life in a remote route a bit more interesting. In the end, she took a very good picture of Emalthya and Pheonix, despite their tired appearance, and then looked Pheonix over.
“He looks fine; there’s nothing wrong with him that a bit of rest won’t cure. He should be right as rain to tackle the mountain tomorrow, if that’s where you’re heading.”
“We are,” assured Emalthya. “We’d be grateful for a bed for the night, though.”
“We’re never short of beds in this centre,” said Nurse Joy with a wry giggle.
Emalthya felt more herself after a hot shower and insisted on giving Pheonix a scrub down with soap; he was very dirty from sleeping on the ground. He didn’t mind it, much, as Emalthya was very careful not to let water get on his tail flame. At one point, she accidentally splashed it with water runoff. She apologised, horror-struck, and flicked her own face with water when she flung up her hands in alarm, making Pheonix chuckle throatily. He had barely felt the flecks of water, but he appreciated that Emalthya took his comfort so seriously.
When they went to sleep in a complementary bed, Pheonix noted as he drowsed that he could get used to sleeping in a bed. Emalthya found the pokemon centre beds a little hard and thin for her taste, but she was grateful for them nonetheless.
Nurse Joy offered Emalthya and Pheonix torches to take with them through Mount Moon the next day, saying to return them to the Cerulean Pokemon Centre. “There are lights inside,” she said, “But they’re very dim, so the pokemon don’t get frightened. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“It’s very kind of you to lend us this,” said Emalthya gratefully. “Thanks.”
The torch beam did not do much for the deep, sheltered darkness of the mountain. When they entered Mount Moon, it was like the sun went out for the whole world. Pheonix’s tail helped cast some light across the well-trodden carved path through the mountain, but the torch helped them see better ahead of them. Still, it was very surprising when they were attacked by a geodude disturbed by their light.
“Use metal claw,” cried Emalthya, then flinched while her voice echoed back to her shrilly.
Pheonix threw himself towards the geodude and scratched at it like he had the boulders in Viridian Forest. The geodude cried out and bounded away.
“That was scary,” whispered Emalthya, to prevent any more disturbing echoes. “We should be wary of zubat. There are clefairy here, too, but I don’t think we’ll see any.”
Emalthya was wrong about not seeing any clefairy; a trainer stumbled towards them in the dark and challenged them to battle her only pokemon, a clefairy.
“If I beat you,” said the lass in a frightened voice, “you can take me back to the pokemon centre! I am so lost! I should have brought a light like you!”
Pheonix saw the pink creature, alike and yet different to the jigglypuff he had fought the previous day, and he steeled himself. This pink thing would try and make him sleep and beat him when he was unconscious!
“Use ember!” said Emalthya quietly enough not to echo.
Pheonix blew flames at the clefairy, who could not dodge them in the tight confines of the tunnel, but she was strong enough to brush them off before opening her mouth and singing. Pheonix twisted, as though to shake off the sound like she had shaken off his fire, but the sound echoed around them and became a physical, painful force. Pheonix could not have slept if he wanted to; the noise was unbearable. He growled as loudly as he could, trying to drown out the sound, exhaling another gout of fire at the clefairy, who began to clap her hands maniacally. Pheonix found himself immediately breathing fire again and again, unable to stop himself or even move.
“She used encore!” said Emalthya. “Keep trying to hit her with ember, it’s all you can do until the encore stops!”
Pheonix could do nothing but obey, then, as suddenly as the insistence on using ember began, it faded. The clefairy was prone on the ground, a dead faint after running to avoid the flames for too long.
Emalthya showed the lass, almost fainting herself from fear of being lost in Mount Moon without a pokemon to defend her, the way out. When she saw natural daylight, she shoved a handful of notes into Emalthya’s hands heedlessly and ran for the entrance. Pheonix helped EMalthya find all the notes which had fallen to the ground.
“That wasn’t very polite,” said Emalthya, frowning. “But she was very frightened, so… I guess we can forgive her. Let’s keep going.”
There were signposts telling them where to go, so Emalthya and Pheonix couldn’t get lost, but their light acted like a beacon for trainers and pokemon. They were ambushed by zubat, geodude, and paras, which Emalthya which startled Emalthya terribly by the way they moved, scuttling stealthily in the darkness outside the torchlight. The paras were driven off by ember attacks, the geodude were sent off by Pheonix’s metal claw, but the zubat were a struggle. The continually used leech life and frustrated both Emalthya and Pheonix before being swatted away using scratch.
They continued on through the mountain, but before they had gone further than the first ladder, they were approached by a bug catcher who had gone the wrong way, a bug catcher who was trying to find his way out by hugging and interior wall and actually had ended up going in circles, and a super nerd with electric pokemon, a type which they had not battled before. None of these trainers had pokemon as powerful as the first girl’s clefairy. The bug catchers were defeated easily by Pheonix’s ember attack, as was the super nerd’s magnemite, but his voltorb got a few good electric attacks in before it went down.
“We’ll walk it off, what do you say?” asked Emalthya sympathetically while Pheonix twitched involuntarily. They went down a ladder to a platform and then down another ladder to find a dead end. They returned to the first level and headed up, following the lights and the occasional signposts.
On the way, they met a second lass, this time with an oddish and bellsprout making up her team. Emalthya was very excited to see more new pokemon, and relieved that they were grass type.
“Be careful of their poison- and sleep powders!” cautioned Emalthya. “Use ember to defeat them, roast them like vegetables!”
Pheonix obeyed, but the bellsprout tripped him up and he fell flat on his face and bit his tongue. However, he didn’t need his tongue to use ember and the bellsprout’s first vine whip attack was its last. The oddish could not use vine whip, but it did use poisonpowder. It hit Pheonix right in the face and he immediately came over very weak. He hurriedly set off a thick plume of fire and the oddish squeaked shrilly and then collapsed.
The lass squeaked as shrilly as her pokemon.
“Hey, excuse me,” said Emalthya, breaking through the other girl’s hysterics, though she seemed to be enjoying working herself up. “If you want, we can go back to the pokemon centre together. Pheonix will need an antidote and I didn’t bring one.”
The lass agreed. It wasn’t very far to the pokemon centre, especially with all the trainers on the way-back defeated and Pheonix knocking out the occasional wild pokemon which surprised them. At the pokemon centre, the lass paid Emathya her prize money and said she was going to get a ride home.
“I’m sick of the mountain,” she explained wearily.
Emalthya, however, was not, and neither was Pheonix after a heart lunch and some antidote from Nurse Joy. They re-entered Mount Moon and headed west from where they had met the last lass. They found a manhole which they climbed down to find another dead end.
“Why do we even bother with these?” sighed Emalthya in annoyance as they retraced their steps. They turned a corner on the first level and crossed the path of a youngster, who tormented them by using a zubat.
“It’s not enough that we keep battling them in the mountain, we have to battle trainers with zubats, too?’ she muttered. She was getting a bit tired of the mountain by now.
After defeating the youngster, they crossed the path of a hiker with two geodude and an onix.
“Ohh, what a pretty onix,” said Emalthya in awe.
The hiker guffawed. “Thank you, miss!” he said, loud enough that the echoes lasted, repeating themselves over and over, until Pheonix drowned them out with the sound of metal claws raking stone flesh. They were large pokemon, the geodude and onix, but they were weaker in strength than the clefairy had been and were very weak to Pheonix’s metal claw.
The hiker simply guffawed again when he lost and pushed a roll of cash into Emalthya’s limp hands, heedless of the amount, which exceeded three hundred pokedollars. He marched off towards the pokemon centre, scaring off the wild pokemon with his constant laughter.
He had been standing in front of a ladder, which Emalthya and Pheonix took down to a platform with another ladder, which took them down to another level, but not a dead end, for which Emalthya was grateful.
They followed the confusing path of the second level, guided by the sign posts and the lights, met only by wild pokemon. Pheonix was becoming very fatigued. There was no respite from the wild pokemon; they were attracted by Emalthya’s torch and Pheonix’s tail flame light, enraged by the disruption to their dark lives and willing to attack the light to stop it shining. Pheonix found himself longing for long grass, where the fighting would stop if you simply walked out of it.
He was very tired by the time they came across the only other person on the level, another super nerd. He was guarding some fossils he had found and challenged them to fight for their secrecy.
The super Nerd’s pokemon, a grimer, a voltorb, and a koffing, were strong and not weak against any of Pheonix’s attacks. It was a hard slog to defeat them, and Pheonix was near to dropping by the time he was victorious.
“It’s not far to Cerulean from here,” said the super nerd, packing away his fossils. “It’s just down that ladder and another ladder.”
“Thanks,” said Emalthya tiredly. “Are you going back to Pewter with those fossils? To the museum?”
“These?” asked the super nerd nervously. “No, I want to study them myself.”
“Are you allowed to do that?” asked Emalthya. “Aren’t they historical evidence or something?”
“No…” said the super nerd, but he didn’t sound very sure. “Just… here,” he said, handing Emalthya her prize. “Just go away now, okay?”
“Thanks,” said Emalthya grumpily. “We will, we don’t want to be here a second longer.”
She stumped away, annoyed that his rudeness had caused her to be brusque. The super nerd had been true to his word, and by following his directions, Emalthya and Pheonix escaped the mountain within twenty minutes.
Emalthya breathed deeply when she was out of the mountain. “I feel so much better now,” she said.
Pheonix knew exactly what she meant. He was tired to the bone, but he felt much better knowing no pokemon would ambush him out of the blue anymore.
It was late afternoon and they could see Cerulean city in the distance, not even an hour’s walk away, but they were so tired that they set up camp up on one of the level ledges away from the mountain entrance. They would continue on the way to Cerulean the next day.
While Pheonix ate a plain breakfast of Pokemon nuggets, Emalthya checked their supplies. They had done very well over the past week, but they would need some more powdered milk and other things. She checked her purse with trepidation and smoothed out the crumpled prize money banknotes and stacked up the coins. All up, she and Pheonix had won over three thousand pokedollars. This was an excellent start, but only worth about four hundred and fifty dollars where she was from. It was, however, definitely enough to treat Pheonix to an ice cream once they got to Cerulean.
They made their way down through the gentle slopes of Route Four, leaping over the ledges and giving the grassy area a wide berth, they soon stood on the neatly squared off pavers of Cerulean City. Cerulean City, unlike Pewter, was an upper crust kind of place. Whereas Pewter was mostly built for scientists, their families, and mountain enthusiasts, Cerulean was a coastal city catering to rich people. Cerulean featured beautiful homes, beautiful scenery including the mountain harbouring the strongest pokemon in the country, and shops filled with beautiful things that only the richest people could afford.
Emalthya and Pheonix did not fit in in this city. Emalthya looked very bedraggled from her week on the road, despite her regular washes, and was desperate to wash her clothes. Pheonix was looking rather dusty and incredibly tired from his two day battling ordeal.
The Cerulean pokemon centre was the busiest they had come to, even including Viridian pokemon centre. The trainers there seemed very relaxed, talking about themselves and their pokemon over fancy drinks served in tall cups. The pokemon centre appeared to be the subversive hang out for the bored kids who were too jaded to enjoy the beautiful place where they lived, at least some of the year.
The other inhabitants of the centre only noticed Emalthya when she and Pheonix posed for their commemorative picture, as though the act of taking a picture drew their attention like a growlithe sensing dinnertime.
Nurse Joy handed Emalthya back her poketech and lifted Pheonix up to the counter. “Ooof, you’re a sturdy little fellow, aren’t you?” she asked him rhetorically. “He looks very well, very hardy for a pokemon of his stage. They grow quickly, of course. His tail flame is very strong and bright; are you training to evolve him?”
Pheonix nudged her face with his nose cutely to thank her for her compliments.
“No,” said Emalthya cheerfully. “We’re just training to get stronger and stay out on the road. Why would I want him to evolve? He’s got beautiful big eyes, lovely orange skin, and he’s so huggable!” Emalthya planted a kiss on the top of Pheonix’s domed head.
Nurse Joy thought for a moment that if this pokemon was covered in kisses and compliments all day, every day, she would have expected him to be a lot more sensitive. Emalthya dispelled this thought by immediately adding,
“Besides, if he grew any bigger, he’d have to take a turn carrying the backpack.”
Emalthya stowed their luggage in their room, taking only a water bottle in a collapsible shopping bag and her stick umbrella to shade her from the sun. She and Pheonix walked around Cerulean City for a few minutes, admiring the shops. Lots of the shops sold clothes and Emalthya could not bring herself to enter such shiny places looking the way she did. She looked north to Route 24 and her expression became conflicted.
“Pheonix,” she said finally. “I really would like to go for a swim in the river. Would you?”
Pheonix blinked at her. He had never been swimming and he doubted he would like it, but if Emalthya wanted to, he could bask on the banks and watch her. He shrugged and nodded.
“Well,” Emalthya continued, her expression the same, “the only way to get to the river is through Route 24, but to get there we need to cross Nugget Bridge. I heard inside the pokemon centre that the Nugget Bridge challenge is still taking place; that’s where you fight five trainers in a row in order to pass, and if you can defeat them, they’ll give you a nugget.”
Pheonix cocked his head. A pokemon nugget? Just one, for defeating all those pokemon?”
“A nugget of gold,” elaborated Emalthya. “It’s worth five thousand pokedollars; more than we have now! But it’s not about that,” said Emalthya earnestly. “I don’t want to fight them if you want a rest. If we could get there without fighting, I would go that way.”
Pheonix blinked. Money seemed to be important for some reason he couldn’t fathom. He felt fighting fit, anyway. He could take on five trainers! He began striding towards the yellow bridge dead ahead of them, back straight and tail erect. Emalthya grinned and walked beside him, marching to attention.
The first trainer on Nugget Bridge was a bug catcher, who told them the rules, which Emalthya had already explained to Pheonix. He had four pokemon, weedle, caterpie, and their second evolutions. They were barely as strong as the bug catchers they had fought on Route 3 and Pheonix defeated him easily, though he said he had no regrets because he had done his best. He also handed Emalthya one hundred and thirty pokedollars.
Pheonix and Emalthya moved onto the next trainer on the bridge, a lass who swore they would not defeat her. Her pokemon were more powerful than the bug catcher’s had been and included a pidgey, a bellsprout, and an oddish. Pheonix had some trouble with the pidgey as it would doge all his attacks, but the grass pokemon fell to his flame quickly. The lass gave Emalthya two hundred pokedollars in prize money and said she had no regrets for her defeat.
Slightly perturbed by the repetition of the same line by both trainers, Emalthya and Pheonix challenged the next trainer, a youngster with two strong pokemon; a sandshrew and an ekans. Pheonix dispatched the sandshrew and ekans with a few metal claw attacks, but he took a few sand attacks and a wrap and felt like he could use a rest after. The youngster gave a prize of two hundred and thirty pokedollars and repeated the saying about having no regrets for his loss. Emalthya cleaned out Pheonix’s eyes and they went for a brief walk before heading for the fourth trainer, another lass.
The second lass’s pokemon were two nidoran. Emalthya instructed Pheonix to use flames on them instead of getting too close, but they fought back hard and he was very tired looking by the time he had finished. They were some of the strongest pokemon he had battled. The lass admitted that she had no regrets and gave Emalthya two hundred and sixty pokedollars.
“Are you ready to continue, or do you want to stop?” Emalthya asked Pheonix. Pheonix responded by uncapping the water bottle and draining half its contents before walking straight up to the fifth trainer, a camper.
The camper had only one pokemon; a mankey as powerful, or more powerful, than Pheonix. It was fast; it struck, dived, hit, and spun around him. Pheonix finally used a similar tactic as he had used against the clefairy in Mount Moon; he spun himself a cocoon of fire that the mankey could not cross, and then burst out with a scratch attack. The mankey was taken by surprise and it slowed down enough for Pheonix to finish it off with a few well-placed ember attacks. The camper handed Emalthya three hundred and fifty pokemdollars and told her to collect her prize from the Team Rocket Grunt at the end, and that he had no regrets.
“A Team Rocket Grunt?” asked Emalthya. “I don’t know…”
Pheonix grinned widely in triumph. What was Team Rocket compared with him? He was strong, fierce, and victorious, and he would get that nugget, no matter who had it.
The Team Rocket Grunt congratulated Emalthya and Pheonix on their five straight wins, though he seemed annoyed that Emalthya looked askance at his uniform. “A Team Rocket Member can’t like battles?” He pushed the nugget into Emalthya’s hand and challenged them to a battle.
To her relief, the Grunt’s pokemon were and ekans and zubat hardly stronger than the bellsprout, oddish, and pidgey had been. Pheonix was tiring, however, and the battle was a long one. Pheonix made another shield out of his flame and burned his opponents from afar, not wanting to risk a hit from poisonous pokemon. The Grunt gave them four hundred and seventy pokedollars and congratulated them again, though stiffly.
“Finally, the river!” exclaimed Emalthya, dashing off the bridge to the riverbank on the western side. The river was deep and swift here. “But… maybe it’s not a good idea to swim here?”
“There’s shallower water in Route 25,” called a voice from the tall grass. Peering closely, Emalthya made out a camper like the one they had just battled.
“Thank you,” she said to the boy, who retorted;
“You’re just going to leave me here without a battle?”
“Do you often hide in the grass to battle the winners of the Nugget Bridge Challenge when they’re tired?” asked Emalthya in annoyance. She was tired of that tactic.
“Yes,” snapped the camper. “So battle me!”
Pheonix faced off against the camper’s pokemon, less out of a need to challenge himself and more out of a desire for some peace and quiet. The camper’s pokemon were weaker than the Grunt’s had been. Pheonix defeated the ratatta easily but took more care with the ekans so he would not be poisoned. He defeated the serpent pokemon with fire attacks from a distance.
“Aww,” whined the camper. He paid two hundred and eighty pokedollars in prize money. “I thought you would be more tired.”
“We are tired, and cranky, and all we wanted was a swim,” said Emalthya. “Good battle, though,” she added politely. “You fought well.”
The camper smiled shyly. “Thanks. You as well.”
Emalthya looked up at Route 25. “Route 25 is crawling with trainers,” she said gravely to Pheonix. “They’re very powerful trainers and we can’t avoid them.”
Pheonix looked up at her questioningly.
“We’ll make do here for a swim,” said Emalthya resolutely. She gave the bag she carried to Pheonix with a warning not to lose it as it contained their precious nugget, pulled off her boots, and slipped into the river with all her road clothes on. She paddled around and splashed Pheonix with water. Pheonix hissed and lay on his stomach so he could reach the water and splash her back.
Attracted by the noise of the water splashing, Emalthya giggling, and Pheonix chortling, a wild abra snuck over to the river to investigate.
“Oooh,” said Emalthya, swimming to the bank and holding on to steady herself. “An abra!”
Pheonix jumped to his feet, claws out.
“Don’t bother, dear,” said Emalthya. “It’s just going to teleport away.”
The abra immediately disappeared, leaving Pheonix looking a little wilted. A pokemon that can vanish? How could he fight that?
“That’s the only attack abra knows. You just have to be faster than they are. But if you want to do some battling while we’re here, I’m sure you can fight some of the other pokemon in the grass.”
Other pokemon came to the riverbank and challenged Pheonix t battle. Emalthya directed Pheonix from the water, but there were no pokemon strong enough to rival Pheonix.
In the end, they didn’t spend a lot of time by the river, but they had a great time. Emalthya heaved herself out of the water and, with boots in hand, walked back across the bridge to Cerulean City, sploshing every step she took in her sodden clothes. At the pokemon centre, Emalthya stripped off her road clothes, towelled herself dry, and put on her nightdress and boots. Her nightdress was a repurposed sundress, so she didn’t look too strange, but she had no choice; her clothes really needed a wash. Leaving her clothes in the centre washing machine, Emalthya and Pheoix went to explore Cerulean City.
They found an ice cream vendor and bout two jumbo chocolate ice creams and sat down in a shady place to eat them. Pheonix loved how such a cold thing tasted so nice and Emalthya giggled at the different faces he pulled while eating.
When the ice creams were eaten, Emalthya and Pheonix explored the shops. There were clothes shops, where Emalthya modelled a few things for Pheonix to see, though she made sure he kept a close hold on his tail to avoid any disasters with the flammable clothes. They visited the gym, which was beautiful, and included a pool Emalthya was tempted to dip into. Pheonix wondered what kinds of pokemon lived in the gym and stuck his head in the water. A starmie spun towards him under the water and Pheonix drew back very quickly.
They visited the grumpy Berry Powder man, though they had no berries to crush up and Pheonix abhorred the smells of the powders. Emalthya didn’t like the smell either. They also looked into the bike shop, which sold incredibly expensive bikes. They left after Emalthya explained that, even if they could afford a bike, Pheonix would not be able to ride outside his pokeball with her, and Emalthya had no idea how to ride a bike.
Pheonix was very excited by every new thing he saw, even though they were moving around a lot lately. He supposed it was because after spending so much time training in the same place, he appreciated a change in setting more. He saw a lot of pokemon outside their pokeballs, like him, in Cerulean City, but they did not accompany their trainers anywhere outside the city districts; they were in their pokeballs when their trainers travelled. He found himself sizing them up, wondering if he was stronger than they were because he walked more.
It was mid-afternoon when they retired back to Cerulean pokemon centre. The place was empty; all the clientele of the morning had retreated back to their stylish homes for dinner. Emalthya checked on her washing and found that someone, probably Nurse Joy’s chansey, had hung them up and they were almost dry. Emalthya asked Nurse Joy if she was allowed to make dinner for herself, Pheonix, and whoever else might like to have some. Nurse Joy didn’t mind; the pokemon in for treatment had specialised diets which she did not have to make up herself, and having someone else make her dinner was usually quite expensive in Cerulean.
Pheonix sat on a stool and watched Emalthya prepare and cook a meal. It was difficult to make anything really delicious on the road without a real kitchen. He watched her crack eggs into little glasses to check them for eggshells, roll out pieces of pastry and press them into a pie dish, and peel and prepare vegetables. Even more interestingly, he watched her rinse the white off rice before cooking it in water and then coconut milk with all kinds of flavourings, pouring in a dash of this and that and tasting it before setting it aside. The best part was that Pheonix got to try the food before it finished. He wondered how different it would taste when it was done cooking.
“This looks very good,” said Nurse Joy, picking up her cutlery at the table when the main course was set out. “Thank you for making it!” Nurse Joy’s chansey beamed and cooed in agreement.
“Thank you for letting me use your kitchen,” replied Emalthya. “My pies are my specialty; though I can’t actually cook anything else. What do you think Phe-“ she broke off; Pheonix had forgone his cutlery and was eating his pie with his face in his plate, making happy noises.
“Pheonix,” said Emalthya sternly. Pheonix sat back and looked at her, egg flecks on his face. “When we sit at the table we have to use the knives and forks. Like this.” She demonstrated how she held her cutlery. Pheonix imitated her grip, though it was clear he didn’t think such things were necessary.
Nurse Joy giggled. “You have some more training to do.”
“There’s always more training,” replied Emalthya.
While the dinner was a success, Emalthya had more trouble than she expected trying to civilise Pheonix’s table manners. He was trying, she knew, but his claws were getting in his way. It didn’t help that he didn’t see the point to the exercise, but he did his best, regardless.
By the time Emalthya and Pheonix retreated to bed, the entire pokemon centre was deserted. All the trainers had gone home to enjoy their creature comforts. Emalthya glanced down at Pheonix, who was yawning and dragging the fire proof blanket Nurse Joy had given him out of the emergency fire equipment. Was Pheonix getting too used to comfort? She hoped not. Pokemon centres were thick on the ground in Kanto’s north, but she wanted to travel all around, which would probably entail a lot of sleeping on the ground, possibly even sleeping on the wet ground.
Emalthya slid into her pokemon centre guest trainer bed with a muffled ‘Goodnight’ to Pheonix, who grunted in reply. The beds didn’t seem as hard to her anymore, though she would have preferred a thicker mattress. She smiled, her last cogent thought being that perhaps she was the one becoming too fond of comfort.
Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 3:11 am
Emalthya and Pheonix left Cerulean the next day, taking the southern road to Route 5, the last route before Saffron City. Route 5 was a short route without any other trainers, but Emalthya took Pheonix jumping down the ledges to the only long grass on the route so they could train. They were too used to hard training to stop when they approached their destination.
In the long grass they met meowth, pidgey, and bellsprout, all varying in strength from fairly easy to defeat to very strong. Emalthya gave the pokemon they defeated pokemon nuggets as prizes; something she had not done since before they had crossed Mount Moon, not wanting to invite more battles across the rocky dungeon than they had to face. They made the most of the experience to be gained on Route 5 and then continued on past the tall grass.
Despite the lack of pokemon trainers, Route 5 was not without any interesting feature; a pokemon day care centre operated halfway down the route.
“This is where trainers bring their pokemon when they want someone else to train them,” explained Emalthya when they jumped over the ledge and approached the back fence.
Pheonix crept up to the fence and put his eye to a hole formed by a fallen out knot in the wood of the fence.
“What can you see?” asked Emalthya. Pheonix stepped away and Emalthya crouched down and peeked into the Day Care grounds. “I can’t see anything,” she said, disappointed.
“There’s a better view inside,” said an old, amused voice.
Emalthya jerked back. Pheonix blinked at the old man who had creeped up on them. “We were curious about the Pokemon Day Care,” she explained guiltily.
The old man chuckled. “I’m the best person to ask about it, since I’m the Day Care Man! Come in for a look, won’t you?”
Emalthya and Pheonix followed the Day Dare Man around to the front of his house, in through the front gate, and out to the back yard. There were many small pokemon playing in the yard and they were all healthy and happy looking.
“I raise pokemon for those who need help,” said the Day Care Man to Pheonix, who watched at the day care pokemon interestedly. “Not everyone is born a good trainer.”
“That’s true,” agreed Emalthya wryly.
“You seem to be doing very well,” said the Day Care Man, catching her tone.
“I am now,” replied Emalthya. “When I started learning to be a pokemon trainer, it took me a long while to get the hang of it. Training for endless days did not come naturally to me. Patience was the hardest thing I had to learn.”
Pheonix stared at Emalthya. She used to dislike training? Now he’d heard everything.
“I see,” said the Day Care Man. “You did strike me as a bit, ah, mature for a first time pokemon trainer.
“I didn’t get a chance until just recently,” explained Emalthya. “But your pokemon here seems to be doing well.”
Taken back to a topic focusing on his work, the old man finally stopped probing Emalthya for information. Old people have no boundaries, thought Emalthya exasperatedly.
“We’re a little out of the way here, not being very close to anywhere important to trainers. The pokemon day care near Goldenrod City in Johto gets more business, and the day care in the Sevii Islands, but the littlies come here, those new trainers who have a few pokemon and want to give one a leg up,” the Day Care Man stepped into the crowd of small pokemon, carefully avoiding stepping on any feet or tails. “I don’t suppose you would want to help a little one with its training?”
Emalthya watched the Day Care Man scoop up a cubone from a huddle of pokemon looking with awe and fear at Pheonix, who was trying to make friends.
“This one goes home tomorrow,” The Day Care Man said. “It could do with a bit of last minute experience.”
Emalthya rubbed the cubone’s exposed tummy and it chuckled and waved its arms and legs. “What do we do?” she asked.
The pokemon day care had a fenced off area inside the grounds where some very old but tough pokemon lived, out of view of the general public and the trainers who used the day care. They were the pokemon who had been left behind by their trainers, or had their trainers die, or be unable, or unwilling, to look after them any longer. They were too strong to do well in the wild; normal wild pokemon would be very afraid if a venusaur turned up at the same stream to drink. The pokemon found their ways here and the Day Care Man took care of them and used them to train the pokemon left by trainers.
Emalthya was impressed by them; she had never seen old pokemon before. She spotted a few fighting pokemon and some crumbling rock pokemon in the group, all laying down to rest or eating berries. Pheonix looked at them in wonder. Would he ever be like them?
A faded-looking, heavy-headed venusaur looked up at them and Emalthya squeaked in delight. She approached it and put out her hand for it to sniff it. Its nostril blew hard against her hand. She threw herself down beside it and gently stroked its head and neck. Venusaur growled non-aggressively and allowed her to hug it. Emalthya couldn’t help it; this venusaur looked just like it could be her first ever pokemon; her dear Brutus. She kissed Venusaur and its eyes closed.
Suddenly, an arcanine leapt past them in a blur and wheeled to a stop in front of Venusaur and Emalthya. It had gone grey in places and it seemed thinner than it would have been if it was younger. Emalthya looked at it, wondering if it was going to reprimand her for touching its friend. Then it let out a suppressed whine of longing and forced its head under her arm.
Emalthya immediately burst into tears and cuddled it; scratching every part of it she could reach and pressed her streaming face into its soft fur. Arcanine snuffled her vigorously.
Pheonix had no idea what to make of this, but he wasn’t left wondering long; the other pokemon drew him aside. The Day Care Man was ignored by all, seemingly happy to wait for them to finish whatever they were doing.
A stiff-looking hitmonlee took Pheonix by the claw and guided him a little away from Emalthya, Arcanine, and Venusaur. It explained that Arcanine had once been the pokemon of a beautiful, or so it always told them, pokemon coordinator; the most beautiful woman in the world, it would have everyone believe. When she married, Arcanine had not liked the husband and he had not liked it at all. He had made his wife give up Arcanine and she had, though she had always meant to come back for it when her children grew up. She brought the children to see it, but it was so large that it frightened them and then they had all stopped visiting. The pokemon living here were not starved for affection, Hitmonlee’s friend, Golem, assured Pheonix, they just sometimes missed the way a trainer acted with them.
“Don’t lose your human,” said Hitmonlee steadily. “Don’t let them lose you. It is much worse having no human.”
Pheonix asked Hitmonlee what ‘human’ meant. Hitmonlee said it was a word for not-pokemon; trainers were human, but not all humans were trainers. Not all humans with pokemon were trainers, either. Hitmonlee had once lived with a martial arts master in a dojo, but he had died. Pheonix could see the love Hitmonlee still had for its master in its eyes. Pheonix couldn’t imagine losing Emalthya.
“You look like you have good one,” hissed Golem. “Lots of pokemon don’t have nice human. They have to learn nice. Nice human, sadder to be without.”
Pheonix nodded surely. He would look after his trainer- his human- and not lose her. These pokemon seemed to know what they were talking about. He thought he would try and use ‘human’, now. ‘Human’ could be a trainer, or a friend, or a master, but trainer was just trainer.
Hitmonlee taught him that more than one human was ‘humans’ and another word was people or person. Pheonix wondered if there were as many names for what Emalthya was as there were types of pokemon. Hitmonlee and Graveller laughed very hard at this, saying no, not that many names.
“What were we meant to do?” asked Emalthya, one hand in Arcanine’s neck fur and the other scratching Venusaur’s chin.
“Ahh, don’t worry about it,” said the Day Care Man. The normally shy Cubone had approached Hitmonlee and tried to touch its coiled leg. Hitmonlee moved its leg quickly from side to side and Cubone chased it. Experience came in many forms, he supposed. If the trainer came to get her cubone and found it braver than it had been, that was as good as it being stronger.
Emalthya kissed Venusaur and Arcanine goodbye, waved to the other pokemon, and followed the Day Care Man back to the main area of the grounds. As they were heading out, Pheonix heard someone calling. It was the squirtle who had been with him in Professor Oak’s lab in Pallet Town. Pheonix dashed up to Squirtle and hugged it in greeting.
The Day Care Man told Emalthya that Squirtle’s trainer had left it not long before. They had left Pallet Town at about the same time, but it was clear that Pheonix was remarkably stronger than Squirtle.
Emalthya thanked the Day Care Man for showing them around as she and Pheonix were leaving.
“Not a problem,” said the Day Care Man. “Just tell everyone you know about us, and come back and visit.”
“We will!” promised Emalthya and Pheonix called out in agreement.
