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 Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:42 am
The day after meeting Lyle, Shaun had waited all day in hopes the boy would call him. He kept busy around the city with various little errands, checking his cell phone compulsively like an overeager tween to make sure he hadn’t missed a call. But as the day wore on and no message was received, he got the feeling it wasn’t going to happen. By evening he’d given up hope on the idea, but by then it was late enough that he didn’t want to head out yet, so he stayed the night at the Pokemon Center.
Yet since he was in no hurry to go anywhere, he slept late and took his time with breakfast. About mid-morning when he was gathering his things to go, his phone finally rang. With hope suddenly rekindled, he answered. “Hello?”
“Hi!” Lyle answered. “Shaun, right?”
“Yup, that’s me.” He glanced at his watch and added, “Shouldn’t you be in school now?”
“Nope!” the boy chattered happily. “The Pokemon League let me use the law that lets trainers get time off school for a pokemon journey, so I have the rest of the school year off. Which means I’m done with elementary school, and have time to move my stuff from Motterossa to Katarina and get the gym started. Next school year I’ll start middle school in Katarina.”
“Oh, very nice,” Shaun said. “Guess you get an extra-long vacation, huh?”
“Uh-huh. I might actually travel a bit, since I never got a chance for a real pokemon journey, and probably won’t have time once the gym opens.”
“Sounds fun! I actually spend most of my time traveling, so I can give you a few pointers if you want. How to camp out, what kind of supplies to bring if you’re traveling, that kind of thing.”
“Really? That’s be good. I’m at the Gym now, if you want you can come over. You wanted pictures of my other pokemon, right?”
“Yup, sure did. I’ll be there soon, OK?”
After a round of goodbyes, Shaun hung up and tucked his phone away. Looks like he wouldn’t be leaving just yet after all.
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:58 am
Soon after the phone conversation, Shaun made his way to the Gym. He didn't see Lyle standing outside of it, so he figured the boy was inside. The Gym's front doors were unlocked, so he went right in.
The new Gym Leader wasn't in the gym's lobby, either. So Shaun spent a moment standing in the middle of the space, looking around the doorways to various other parts of the space and wondering where to look for the boy next. Maybe the direction marked Administration? Or perhaps the battlefield itself.
He was looking around the room once more when a pair of large glowing eyes blinked open in the darkness. When Shaun stopped to stare at them, a wide mouth split open into a grin below them. Then a grey-tinged pointy-fingered hand emerged from the shadows to beckon him forward.
With that detail revealed, Shaun could finally determine what it was; a Haunter, hiding in the shadows and being creepy as they tended to do. It was an odd color though; most were solid purple, not fading to grey at the hands. Now that he got a better look at it, there was a smoky grey strip along the top, overlaid with purple spots.
"Well, aren't you a pretty creature," he said with a smile. The Haunter paused. Clearly this was not the reaction it expected to get. Before Shaun could get a camera out, the pokemon phased through the wall behind it and disappeared. He sighed at the missed opportunity, then went back to trying to figure out where Lyle might be.
Before he could decide where to go, the front door opened. "Sorry about that! I forgot to mention I was in the living quarters," a young voice said.
Shaun turned around to see Lyle in the doorway, with the Haunter hovering behind him. "It's no problem. So the pokemon's yours, then?" He asked, gesturing toward the Haunter.
Lyle glanced back at the ghost, who grinned at him. "Yup, Hematite's mine. She didn't bother you, did she?"
Shaun shook his head. "Not at all, She did hover in the shadows and look creepy for a moment, but it didn't bother me. Actually," he pulled out a camera and continued, "I wouldn't mind getting a picture of that. It's actually a very cool image. Might creep out people when I show it to them." He looked at Hematite, eyebrows raised hopefully.
Here eyes lit up - literally, they started glowing again - and she obligingly floated back to the corner she'd been in before. Shaun glanced at Lyle to make sure the boy was OK with it, and when he nodded Shaun turned his attention fully to Hematite. She faded back into the shadows again so only her eyes were visible, then repeated her performance from earlier; eyes visible first, then mouth, then inching forward so her hands and face were visible. Shaun got several pictures of each, then grinned at her. "Beautiful! I bet you'd hide even better on a misty night, with those smoky stripes of yours." Hematite cackled gleefully at the thought, then floated back over to Lyle, who had been waiting patiently for the photographer to finish.
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Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 11:55 am
Lyle led Shaun over to a smaller building alongside the Gym, with Hematite floating ahead of them to disappear into the building. "This is the living quarters for the Gym Leader and any resident gym trainers," Lyle explained as they walked. "It was built by the previous Gym leader, but it seems kind of small to me, so the Pokémon League guys said I could have it renovated. They had someone sketch up a new floorplan yesterday, and once I said it looked good they said they'd take care of finding someone to work on it as soon as possible. So it's a good time for me to travel a while, to give them time to finish." Having reached the building, he pulled open the front door and headed in, followed by Shaun.
The room inside looked to be a common area of living room, with chairs, couches, and a table, with several doors leading elsewhere. Lyle went in and flopped down on the nearest couch, Spinel looked up from where he's been climbing on one of the chairs, then promptly scampered over to climb up on Lyle's hat. This was apparently usual, because Lyle didn't even pay attention to the Sableye, and instead looked back at Shaun. "Come on, sit down. What kind of stuff would I need to know to go traveling?"
Shaun opted to sit down on the same couch as he mentally sorted through travel basics. "Well, you'll probably want to start by figuring out where you're going and how you plan to get there," he began. "That way, you can choose the right kind of supplies you'll need for the trip. Most trainers are going from city to city to collect Gym badges, and travel on foot because it's cheapest and gives you a chance to see and battle more pokemon, he added. "So do you know where you'd like to go?"
Lyle tilted his head and looked thoughtful, then after a moment said, "Hmm, I hadn't really thought about it. I'd like to see more of Zatao, and maybe catch some different pokemon, but I don't know where to go," he said.
"Well, let's start by seeing where there is, then," Shaun answered, and pulled out a map of Zatao. He unfolded it and laid it out on the table in front of the couch, then pointed to parts of it as he explained. "So we're here in Katarina, and Motterossa is there. If you just want to go from one to the other, the quickest route is to go around the Rinaul Mountains, this way." He traced the route with his finger. "There's already a road there, so it's an easy path, but since it's one of the most-traveled routes in Zatao, there's not a lot of pokemon. If you go a little farther away, you can travel along the big lake here or the beginnings of the mountains, which are far enough away from the road that you'll see more pokemon, but still not so hard of a trip, and if you need help you can get to the road pretty quickly. Once you're at Motterossa, you're not far from the mountains, the Howling Forest and the Seitance Valley, which gives you a lot of different places to look fro pokemon."
Lyle nodded and stared at the map, then pointed to the part west of the lake. "What's that area? There's no name there."
Shaun shrugged. "I guess that part hadn't been explored or named yet, at least by the time this map was made. People haven't been living here for very long. Compared to other countries, anyway."
Lyle smiled. "It'd be cool to go there and see it, since not a lot of people have yet. Maybe...this way?" He used his finger to trace a route from Katarina along the bottom of the lake, curving up around it, through the Seitance Valley and finishing at Motterossa.
"If you'd like to do that, it's obviously a longer trip than the straight route. The hard part is here," Shaun said, and tapped the area below the lake. "The Saxukai Desert. Deserts are hard to travel though, though if you stay by the lake you don't have to worry about running out of water. Just cleaning the water to make sure it's safe to drink. And avoiding problems from sun and heat exposure, like heat stroke and sunburn. You said you've never gone on a journey before, right? It might be better to save that for when you've had a bit more experience traveling."
Lyle's face fell. "I don't think I'll have a chance to get experience, at least for a long time. Between the Gym and school, I'll be busy for years." He sighed and looked over the map again, his finger trying to find other routes. But the only other options between the two cities were through the lake or through the mountains.
Shaun didn't like to see the kid look so disappointed. He tried to think of other options and offered, "If you found a guide to help you get through it, you ought to be able to manage the desert alright."
Lyle looked up, interested at the idea. "Really? Where would I find a guide?"
"Well..." Shaun said slowly. "Sometimes Travelers help people through difficult areas like that...so I could go with you if you want," he found himself saying.
Lyle blinked silently for a moment before saying, "Really?" You'd do that?"
Shaun was kind of surprised himself, but he shrugged. "Sure, why not? I've been meaning to get over that way anyway."
Lyle grinned and started to get up, but evidently thought better of it. A moment later Shaun was able to guess what he'd started to do, since Spinel hopped off Lyle's head and ran over to hug Shaun. Which was kind of adorable, since the little pokemon's arms didn't even go half-way around him. He had to laugh at the sight.
"Well, if we're traveling together, you better come meet Salvo. He's my Tropius, and I ride him everywhere," Shaun said, grinning. Once Spinel had let go and went back to Lyle, the two trainers headed outside.
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 1:23 pm
It turned out that just behind the Gym was a large field, where trainers would run around, practice, or whatever they wanted to do. They headed there so Salvo wouldn't be standing in the street, and Shaun released his Tropius.
"Wow, I haven't seen a pokemon like that before," Lyle said, looking up at the leafy dinosaur. Salvo turned his head to look at the boy, then lowered his head so it was closer to the young trainer's eye level. Spinel was sitting on Lyle's head again, and he sat up to chatter a greeting at the bigger pokemon.
"Yeah, he's is not a common species. He's a Tropius, a pokemon that's native to the Hoenn region, where I'm from," Shaun told him. He reached over to rub his pokemon's head, causing the Tropius to lean into the caress. Then he lifted his head to lick his trainer's cheek. "Ack! And occasionally he does that," Shaun added, wiping off the Tropius spit with his sleeve.
"I've got a Grass-type too, but he's not so big," Lyle said. He pulled out a pokeball and tossed it to the ground, releasing a deer-like pokemon with flowers on his antlers.
"Oh, you have a Sawsbuck!" Shaun identified, and reflexively pulled out a camera. "Would you mind...?" he didn't even need to finish, since Lyle was already nodding. "Thanks." The Watcher took a few steps back to get a wide shot of the deer pokemon, who had seen there was nothing that immediately needed his attention, and lowered his head to browse on the grass.
"He's got a very nice pattern," Shaun observed as he started taking pictures. "It looks like he's wearing a fancy coat."
"Yeah, I thought so too," Lyle said, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Leader Shina said he looked like a fabric called brocade, which has patterns like leaves or flowers or something woven into it, and showed me pictures. He really does, so I named him Brocade." Spinel, seeing nothing would be going on for a bit, hopped off his trainer's head and want to climb onto Salvo, who didn't seem to mind.
"That's a very cool idea for a name," Shaun commented. He paused long enough to pull out a pocket notebook, flip it to a page where he'd jotted down a few notes about Lyle's pokemon that he's taken earner, and jotted down "Sawsbuck, Brocade." He'd have to remember later to look up pictures of the fabric brocade for a comparison. "Sawsbucks change appearance based on the season. Have you had him long enough to see that?" he asked Lyle as he went back to his camera. Brocade had heard his name and looked up at his trainer, treating Shaun a noble-looking pose of the pokemon looking in his direction. He gladly snapped a picture of it.
The boy nodded. "Yup, I've had him a little while now. His antlers are like a tree! They grow leaves, then lose them and everything. Though in the fall, the leaves were falling all over the place. It was like he was shedding, except with leaves."
Shaun tried to picture that and smiled at the mental image. “They must have gone everywhere whenever he moved. It must have been like he was in a wind storm whenever he ran!”
Lyle chuckled. “Yeah. Whenever we were training, the field had leaves all over it when we were done. Never enough at once to get into a pile to jump into, though.”
“Aw, that’s a shame,” Shaun said. He glanced at his own pokemon, who was placidly watching Spinel as the Sableye scampered up and down his back. “Salvo’s a tropical pokemon, and his only leaves are his wings, so they don’t fall off like that.” Spinel heard this and went over to poke at the long leaves. Salvo obligingly lowered the wings so that they were held out flat, and Spinel gleefully ran up and down them. Shaun snapped a shot or two of that before turning back to Brocade. “Does his coat pattern change any between seasons?”
Lyle thought a moment, then shrugged. “Not really. His fur turns from cream to white and back, and some of it gets longer or shorter, but the pattern stays the same. It’s all the brown and yellow part, which always seems to be there.”
“Very true,” Shaun answered. “It’s Deerling, it’s preevolution, whose coat changes color based on the season.” He stopped to review his pictures, and nodded to himself. “That’ll do for now. I’m sure I’ll see more of him as we travel.” He stashed his camera away, then turned to face Lyle. “Now, would you like to take after Spinel and climb all over Salvo? As you can see, he doesn’t mind.”
Lyle was happy to take him up on the offer, and had fun riding around the field on the large pokemon’s back.
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Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 1:01 pm
Once the novelty of riding around on Salvo wore off, Shaun brought the subject back to the trip. "You're welcome to keep riding Salvo with me if you like, he's big enough to fit us both. But if he's willing, you could probably ride Brocade instead."
Lyle, who was still sitting on Salvo, looked over at Brocade, who had continued to graze on the grassy field. "Really? I hadn't thought of that." His slid off Salvo's back and headed over to his Sawsbuck, who looked up as he approached. "How about it? Would you let me ride on your back?"
Brocade looked down at Lyle, then over at Salvo, who still had Spinel climbing all over him. The Sableye had decided to try imitating his trainer by sitting on Salvo's back, but unfortunately his legs were to short to straddle the bigger pokemon's neck like Lyle had been. He was in the middle of shifting around, trying to find a comfortable position, when Brocade looked over. The Sawsbuck thought having someone shift all over his back constantly looked uncomfortable, and put his ears back and snorted at the thought.
Lyle was still waiting for a reaction, but Shaun was a Watcher with enough experience to understand that in most mammalian pokemon, that kind of reaction indicated displeasure. "He doesn't look to enthusiastic about it," he tactfully commented to Lyle. Maybe you should stick to joining me on Salvo."
Lyle looked disappointed at this, and Brocade looked down at his trainer, ears perked thoughtfully. Lyle was not Spinel. Lyle was currently being far more still than Spinel, and was good to his pokemon. If it was Lyle, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. He snorted decisively, turned to present his side to the boy, then looked over his shoulder expectantly.
Lyle's face lit up. "Really? Thanks!" He took a moment to try and figure out how to get on the deer, and tried to just put his hands on the pokemon and hoist himself up. Not only did he not pull himself high enough, but Brocade was decidedly unhappy with the feel of it and shied away, stamping his feet.
"Here, let me give you a hand," Shaun said. He tried lifting Lyle up, found he was too big to pick up that much, and ended up kneeling down and cupping his hands to serve as a boost. With that help, Lyle was able to climb onto his pokemon's back.
"You may want to consider getting a saddle," Shaun commented. "They include footrests handing down the side, called stirrups, which you can use to help get on. Once you get used to riding around a bit, we can go check out some pokemon supply stores and I can show you what they look like."
Lyle was still figuring out what to do next. After sitting for a moment, he looked up at Shaun. "Um, how do I get him to start walking?"
Shaun had to laugh at that. "Try asking him! Pokemon are smart, that may be all you need. Some pokemon trained for riding learn different signals, like squeezing your legs to start. But voice commands ought to me enough."
"Oh," Lyle said. He looked down at Brocade, then tentatively said, "Um, go please?" His Sawsbuck snorted, but started walking. Lyle wobbled, then leaned forward to grab around his pokemon's neck, which made the deer stop and toss his head.
"Yeah, we better let you get some practice," Shaun decided. "Try just getting used to staying on Brocade while he's moving. A saddle would also provide more support, so you wouldn't feel so unsteady. And you could also get reins, which are a big strip of cloth or leather that you can hold on to to help guide him."
Lyle nodded and sat back up, then asked Brocade to start again. His pokemon went slower this time, which let his trainer get used to the idea. Shaun took a chance to pull out his camera and get some pictures of Lyle riding the Sawsbuck bareback. In time Lyle let Brocade speed up, and even seemed to be enjoying himself.
"Looks like you've got the hang of it," Shaun commented. "Why don't we go check out some stores now? We'll need supplies for the trip, anyway." Lyle agreed, and The group set off to go shopping.
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