The Owl, the Lizard, the Forest, the Tank, the Insect, and the Rooster

Or

A Journeyman's Promise

Prologue

She tapped the blank book with the quill made from one of her own feathers irritably. It had been several days and still her mind was a blank.

"Fucking writer's block…" She growled, as she hastily set the quill down, and rubbed her head. Her ability to write had been growing worse throughout the week, mainly due to procrastination, stress, or, well, sexual tension. She only had one love in her life, and the large amount of men looking at her the past month when she actually stepped outside to think was just pissing her off.

"If only I was not so damn lazy sometimes…"

The sound of the door to her room opening startled her, although she really should have sensed him coming well before he got to the door.

"Metsä, you alright? You've been in our room for the past week, and haven't come out, like, at all. You must be starving!"

The sides of Metsࣦä's beak rose upwards, into the closest she could get to a smile.

"I'm sorry Aatto, It's been just, rough, writing this damn book. I was trying to get an idea, but I just can't seem to pull one outta my head. Also, I am kind of hungry, for a certain someone." She added with a wink.

Aatto chuckled. "Only if you eat something first. Besides, you probably haven't gotten any ideas due to the fact that you've been up here this entire time. I've missed you a lot. So hurry up bird-brain."

"Alright," Metsä sighed, with a slight chuckle, "Just give me a minute."

After Aatto closed the door, Metsä sighed, and tabbed the blank page she had stared at for all too long, and flipped the book all the way to the first page.

"Yeah, my dear's right. Sitting in our room and not going out to get some air and relief has most likely taken a toll on my mental process. Liekki's going to kill me for staying up here for so long. Alright, food, a walk, some relaxation with my husband, and a good long nap: that's what I'm going to do. Then I'll finally get back to you." Metsä gave an annoyed stare at the book, in order to emphasize her last point to no one in particular.

"Heh, maybe someone will magically come in and review this damn thing for me. Wouldn't that be a surprise?"

Metsä stood, stretched her back, and began to head for the door. After reaching it, she swung it open and yelled: "Coming down love! Dinner smells lovely, even from up here!"

"Unlike when YOU cook!" He jokingly yelled back.

Pausing for a second, she chuckled to herself softly.

"What did I ever do to deserve someone as great and loving as him?"

Chapter One

It all started with two young lovers, a soldier, and a volcanologist, and also some broken latex. No one knew where Aatto Emil Aatonen was born, as the region he was born in was unrecognized by the Global Pokémon League, and was therefore written down as 'the Farlands' on his birth certificate. No one even knew what the real names of Aatto's parents were, as they had changed them after they settled down in an old traditional home in Iki Town, on Melemele Island, in the Alola region. They were just known as "Mrs. Aaltonen" and "Mr. Aaltonen" by the locals, although they were known as "Pat" or "Mat" by co-workers, and friends of the family.

Despite Aatto being an accident, he was unconditionally loved by his parents, which was why they moved to Alola in the first place, as it was a place for 'new beginnings'. Mr. Aaltonen quickly found a job as a, well, volcanologist for the Aether Foundation of Research and Preservation (a newly reworked Aether Foundation built from the ground-up ten years after the Ultra Beast fiasco). Mrs. Aaltonen found a job as a marine for the Alolan Defense Army, often being assigned as a guard for Mr. Aaltonen's group as they periodically visited Wela Volcano on Akala Island. Unfortunately, on one of these research trips, a wild Pokémon was disturbed, and accidentally caused the volcano to erupt. No one from the research team survived.

As to be expected, Aatto did not take the news of his parents' deaths lightly. He ran from his home at the age of twelve, and did not return until he was sixteen. At that point he had tried to get into a relationship, but had to drop out of it due to both stress, and multiple failures at finding a job. It took Aatto two years to finally realize what he could do, to both support him financially, and get over the fatalities of his parents: He would compete in the Alolan Pokémon League circuit, one of the most difficult challenges a person could ever hope to achieve.

Of course, he was not alone. He had two partners, Metsä, a female Rowlet given to him by his mother, and Liekki, a female Salandit given to him by his father. The two complemented Aatto rather oddly. He was rowdy, and full of energy. Metsä was cautious and rather shy (except around Aatto and Liekki). Finally, Liekki was lazy, and rather stubborn (of course, except around Aatto and Metsä, where she was simply lazy). During his time spent away from home, Aatto got a grasp of battling, by practicing against smaller Pokémon in the wild. It was this experience that finally pushed him to settling on becoming a Trainer, aside from, of course, wanting money and to honor his parents.

The alarm clock on the nightstand suddenly shrieked, signifying that morning had finally arrived. It was quickly knocked aside by a rather tired Aatto Aaltonen, whom grumbled, and he slowly sat up. With a yawn and a stretch, Aatto was up for the day. He threw his covers off, revealing that he slept in his clothes, which was one of his mother's old BDU's (she was a very, very buff woman). It was an old oak-leaf camouflaged set, and Aatto's personal favorite set of clothing, since the material it was made out of prevented it from getting dirty, or smelly.

Aatto trudged into his bathroom, turning on the sink and collecting water in his hands. He splashed his face with the water, and shook his head. He looked himself in the mirror. His brown eyes matched the color of his hair, which was long and unkempt. Aatto noticed that his beard was growing in rather quickly, and contemplated on shaving. He decided not to, as he was too proud of the damn thing to go without it. He quickly brushed his teeth, flossed, and gargled, before putting all of his toiletries away into his small toiletry case.

With his case in hand, Aatto walked over to the door. On a hook in the middle of the door was his mother's old rucksack, and field cap. Aatto stuffed his toiletry case inside the bag, and quickly removed it from the hook, slinging it over his shoulder in the process. He finished by pulling the cap off of the hook, and firmly setting it on his head.

"Metsä! Liekki! Let's go, today's the day!"

After opening his door, Aatto was greeted by the adorable face of a Dartrix, eagerly waiting for him on the other side, while anxiously moving back and forth on her perch. Metsä flew off of her perch and onto her other perch, which was Aatto's right shoulder.

"Good morning Metsä, can't wait to get out of this bloody house too, huh?"

Metsä replied with a happy "Coo!" Aatto smiled, and ruffled the feathers on top of Metsä's head. While he rubbed her head, Aatto felt something crawl up his back, up his neck, and underneath his hat. Liekki's head lazily drooped out from under the brim of Aatto's field cap, and her tail also lazily hanging from the back of Aatto's cap.

"What, no: 'Good morning Aatto,' Liekki?" Aatto joked, earning him a huff as a reply from Leikki. Aatto shook his head with a chuckle.

"Well, good to see that you're around Leikki. Now let's finally get outta here."

Aatto threw open the front door to his home, and shut it, locking it behind him. He turned to face Iki Town in all of its glory. When he first moved to Iki Town, it was a rather small, peaceful town. Seventeen years later, it would soon grow to the size of almost a small city, having all the luxuries of one too. There were shops, businesses, and apartments everywhere. The only thing that did not change, however, was the old Kahuna's arena, from back when Alola used the 'Island Challenge' for its circuit. Today, it was simply used as an arena for qualification matches, for potential trainers to register and qualify for their Trainer's License and PokéDex. Aatto luckily registered beforehand, on a library computer, and had also scheduled his match beforehand, allowing him to skip the usually long lines there.

Thankfully, he lived rather close to the arena, being a simple five minute walk. As he walked to the arena, he could see people staring at him, either because he had his Pokémon out and resting on his head and shoulder, or because they knew about him through the tragic accident that caused him so much grief beforehand. The ones that knew him from the latter, which was not much, nodded their heads respectfully when they passed.

As Aatto walked up to the arena, he could see the line for entry spanning out of the entrance building doors. With a smile, he simply walked past the trainers in line, which certainly pissed a few people off.

"Hey, no cutting in line! I've been waiting hours to get in!" A twelve year-old shouted, as Aatto walked past him. Aatto simply smiled and replied: "Should've pre-registered then."

Aatto nearly laughed when he heard the kid mutter: "Dammit, you could do that? Aww I'm a friggin idiot."

The entrance building was not impressive on the inside. It was a simple room with a counter, a small waiting area (which was packed to the brim with trainers), and a pair of large double-doors, which was the obvious entrance to the arena. Aatto walked up to the receptionist counter, and pulled out a small red card. The receptionist that was tasked with admitting wannabe trainers whom actually pre-registered for their license and match slot was busy looking at her phone, while chewing gum. Aatto cleared his throat, grabbing her attention.

"Oh! Sorry, have you pre-registered for your license and match today sir?" She asked, with Aatto sliding the red card to her.

"Yes, I did, here's the card."

"Thank Arceus, someone actually pre-registered." The receptionist muttered, and quickly punched the card into a reading machine.

"Looks like you showed up just in time, your match is actually next. Good luck."

"Thanks." Aatto replied. He walked over next to the double doors, and waited. It was not long before a girl, with tears streaming down her face, burst out of the double doors, crying while holding a fainted Yungoos.

She most likely lost due to her starter being so weak, or possibly because she was not experienced enough, or maybe it was both. The qualifier match isn't that hard, hopefully. Aatto thought, as he walked through the double doors, and into the arena.

The arena itself was not too fantastic, it was old and wooden, but the decorations around the arena were actually pleasant to look at. Aatto took a breath, and exhaled, quietly hyping himself up. He could see his opponent on the other side of the arena. He was rather short, and wore red, baggy pants and a white t-shirt with the official Pokémon League symbol on it.

He bowed, and introduced himself: "Ah, hello! You must be Aatto. I've heard what happened to your parent's, my condolences. My name's Jakob by the way, with a 'k', not a 'c'."

"It's a pleasure, Jakob. I don't plan on losing today, so I hope you're ready."

Jakob gave a hearty laugh. "I like your attitude Aatto! Certainly better than most of the kids I face. Anyway, it's a standard matchup; I will test you and your Pokémon's abilities in combat. I reserve the right to force you to switch at any point of time, and you are allowed to switch out in the middle of a fight two times, unless directed to otherwise. You have to defeat one of my Pokémon in order to win. Winning this match will grant you your Trainer's License, your PokéDex, and, if I feel generous enough, some PD. So, you ready?"

"I am, are you?"

With a smile, Jakob pulled out a Pokéball from his belt and threw it up into the air. A rather large looking dog, with stones across its neck materialized, growling at the sight of Aatto and his partners.

"Alright, Metsä, let's do this! Fly up into the air, get some distance!"

"Run and jump after it! Don't let that Dartrix get airborne!"

Jakob's Rockruff darted towards Metsä, narrowly biting her on one of her legs as she boosted herself up into the air. She began to dodge the Rockruff's attempts at grabbing her, and, with each time the Rockruff leaped up after her, she'd pelt its side with a few quills. This forced Jakob to quickly rethink his strategy.

"Stop jumping after it, and throw some rocks at it! Knock it from outta the sky!"

"Keep dodging Metsä! Dive at it when it's not attacking you!"

Several stones of various sizes flew past Metsä as she began to dive down at the Rockruff. A stone managed to smash itself against one of her wings, causing her to screech in pain, and drop to the ground. Metsä was not out of the fight however, as she quickly regained her footing, and began to throw quills at the Rockruff, which managed to pierce its skin, and lodge their selves in its hide. Jakob soon called out to Aatto.

"Hey Aatto, switch out your Dartrix, give it some rest. I wanna see what your other partner can do!"

"You heard him Metsä, switch out, and Liekki, please take this seriously."

Liekki gave Aatto a semi-serious dirty look, acting as if she was offended by his comment. She crawled her way out from under his hat and hopped down to the ground, patiently sitting.

"Continue to throw rocks, Rockruff!"

"Liekki, whip up a cloud of poison and pheromones!"

Liekki took a breath in, and soon exhaled a large amount of poisonous mist, getting pelted by rocks in the process, however the Rockruff was too focused on damaging Liekki, that it forgot to move away from the mist.

"Liekki, finish it!"

Liekki took in another breath, and breathed a small burst of fire directed at the Rockruff. It made contact, damaging the Rockruff just enough to incapacitate it. It fell over, tired from the battle, and the effects of the poison.

"Well, shouldn't say I'm surprised," Jakob chuckled, "Kinda figured that you'd have it in you. Congratulations Aatto Aatonen, you just won your qualification match for the Alolan Pokémon League! Your PokéDex and Trainer's License should be ready and waiting for you when you walk outta here, and also, here's a gift from me, for actually being the first one to beat me today, and putting up a good fight while you were at it."

Jakob handed Aatto 15,000 PD, which was an especially hefty sum of cash for a rather low-ranking battle.

"Thanks, Jakob, I had a blast fighting you, really took whatever tension I was feeling before outta my system."

Jakob smiled. "Don't mention it; hope I can see you again sometime. Maybe have another battle in the future?"

"We'll see!" Aatto chuckled, as he made his way out of the arena.

Sorry if the first chapter seems a little light. Since this is the first story I'm uploading (In a long time), I'm kind of experimenting with how long I should make the chapters. I'd appreciate it if you, the reader, would let me know what your opinion is. I've also been reading Flame of Life by Krimson Kane recently (Really great read by the way), so I kind of was inspired to write that little 'prologue' in the beginning, to set this up as sort of a 'book' made by one of the characters. I'll try to update regularly. Be sure to let me know how I'm doing.

-Steiner