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Hi everybody! I'm Trainer Aurelia, formerly the Hoenn Champion. You might recognize me from my trainer blog, Lodestar League. I'm here to tell you that while I'll still be updating LL sporadically, my main efforts are now going to be focused on this blog: Stories from the Wilderness. I'm going to be logging my continued explorations of all the different regions on our planet and my experiences travelling them! I'll also continue what I've been doing on LL and be taking requests for advice (as long as it's about Pokemon! I know literally nothing about most other topics).

For those of you who don't know me: My name is Aurelia Newbold. I'm a Hoenn native from Petalburg City, and six months ago I beat the Hoenn Elite Four and became the new Champion, beating out Steven, the previous Champion of three years. Soon after that, though, I underwent a month-long hospital stay after being mauled by a Houndoom (long story! I'm fine now, though) and came out with a new lease on life.

Turns out? Striving to be Champion is awesome. Becoming Champion and fielding off a bunch of challengers? Really just tedious. Now I know why Champion Steven Stone was so happy to be defeated- he actually has time to study rocks now! So after my hospital stay, I resigned from my post as Champion and decided to live life to the fullest by following my old childhood dream: becoming a literal Pokemon Master!

→ FAQ

How old are you?

As of writing this FAQ, I am nineteen years old!

What Pokemon are on your team?

This is answered under Introducing Team Lodestar.

Why would you quit being Champion? It's everyone's dream!

I know, right? Too bad it turned out not to be mine.

How are they gonna replace you if you were never formally defeated?

They held a competition a la Indigo League to see who was qualified enough to fight the Elite Four and become Champion in my place without actually fighting me. At that point I was still in the hospital, so I wasn't exactly fit for battle. Champion Steven was nice enough to come back and battle the winner to make everything seem more official. In return, I had to accompany him on a bunch of rock-hunting expeditions and carry all his stuff.

Do you have any lasting medical problems from the Houndoom attack?

I've got some serious scarring on my legs (it's all pink and weird from where they had to do surgery) and I've lost some of the feeling on the back of my left thigh from nerve damage, but other than that I'm okay. My legs aren't quite as steady as they used to be, but they still carry me around no problem. Plus I can tell when it's gonna rain from how my scars ache like my grandpa used to do with his knee.

Can you really talk to Pokemon?

Yep! It's a family skill- my sister can communicate with them, too. It's really helpful for learning about Pokemon when you can just ask them yourself instead of miming or going through a telepathic Psychic-type. It's not quite like using a translator, though. I don't hear Pokespeech as Hoennese or Unovan, but as their own language with a kind of translation in my brain that goes more for concepts than for words. Then I have to translate that into speech. It's a lot easier to know what Pokemon are saying now than when I was a kid.

Where are you going first?

Johto Region, here I come!

→ Introducing Team Lodestar!

Perseus: My starter! I got Percy when he was just a little Eevee and when I was a scrappy little kid who didn't know how to pick her battles. Now he's a high-leveled Sylveon with a Moonblast that can level buildings! Percy is incredibly gentle, incredibly intelligent, and incredibly brave. There's no other Pokemon I'd want by my side for all my adventures.

He does get really picky about cleanliness, though.

Sage: A Milotic who loves to explore! I got Sage when I was fishing off the coast near Petalburg- she was the first bite! I'm pretty sure she was abandoned for 'defective' breeding stock, which is just terrible, because Feebas aren't usually found in that area. Sage is always chill, and unlike a lot of Milotic, she's willing to swim in less-than-pristine waters, which is really helpful for exploring abandoned shipwrecks and places like that. She's an invaluable member of the team.

Taron: A Ninetales smarter than her own good. I met her as a Vulpix- from what I can tell, she saw me take out a Fire Stone and decided to follow me around for weeks until I gave in and caught her so she could evolve. She's snappy and brave, and she gets along like a house on fire with wild Pokemon. Every time I read anything I have to read it out loud for her, and she loves to wander whenever she's loose to get to know the area. Sometimes I get the feeling she's only humoring me.

Zarzuela: A Flygon! I met Zarzu as a Trapinch in the desert, where she tried to eat me. Fortunately she was so little at that point that she could only really gnaw on my arm, so when I gave her my potato chips she was content and wanted to come along with me instead. She's still very young for a Flygon, since they can live for centuries as long as they've got a good territory, and she's the most frisky and excitable of my Pokemon. If I need to fly somewhere, I know I can count on her.

Hoshi: A Medicham! I actually caught her as a Medicham, too- she evolved in the wild, and was part of a band that hung out in temples to train and battle each other. I had to track her down and battle her more than once to prove my worth, but once she was on my team she proved to be the most mellow and docile of all my Pokemon. Hoshi's willing to go along with pretty much anything, as long as it doesn't offend her personal code. She likes to take a lot of naps. Never fear, though- in battle, she's an absolute terror.

Bellamy: My newest Pokemon, but by no means my weakest or least loved. She's a Mawile I caught on my way to Victory Road, when I was looking for a final team member to take on the Elite Four. I found her with a half-severed jaw, struggling to eat a dead Zigzagoon- probably the result of one of the vicious territory battles that happens between young Mawile who've been exiled from their packs. I helped her out, and she decided to tag along with me so she could get better at battle. She's nice as long as you respect her boundaries, but she still has a wild streak in her that no amount of taming could destroy.

→ Asks

Feel free to submit asks here! But remember: it has to be about Pokemon, and it can't be anything inappropriate to publish on a blog that kids read. Use your common sense, guys, it's not that hard.

And to the anon who keeps sending in cryptic asks about my location: Get a life, dude. Or at least go outside, I mean, come on.

Aurelia looked up at the dimming sky and frowned. Twilight would bring out all the poachers and opportunists who thought surveillance of the protected area would flag after dark. The Ruins of Alph were a no-capture zone- a law put in place to protect the Unown population, which required at least enough Pokemon for a couple of alphabets to be considered stable and non-hostile. Any less and they'd get defensive and start swarming anyone who entered, and wouldn't that be hell on the tourist season.

It'd be real fun to fight a horde of Unown, though. She wondered if she could get away with going down into the caverns herself if no one showed, maybe find a few wild Pokemon who wouldn't mind testing their skills against her team. They were Psychic types, right? What would their speech be like? Were they a hive mind like Combee could get to be? These were the questions that plagued her waking mind.

The Ruins of Alph were creepy as hell in the dark. The clay structures and old inscriptions on the walls went from archaeologically fascinating to eerie as the light faded, with all the dim installed lights lining the pathways flicking on to help any late-night visitors get around. They illuminated the pitch-black structures with a dusky glow.

As twilight went on, Aurelia started to feel like she could meet an ancient Johtoan around every corner. The feeling settled her. She could stay here all night, safe in the knowledge that humans had lived here for longer than her ancestors had lived in Hoenn. Dangerous Pokemon almost never strayed so close to human dwellings.

Aurelia's Sylveon poked his fluffy head over a half-crumbled wall and hopped neatly down to her stake-out location, waving his ribbons in greeting. "Syl sylvee," he informed her, then gave a trilling veeee. Aurelia parsed through the concepts and translated: Haven't seen anyone. Any luck?

"Isn't it more lucky if we don't see anyone?" Aurelia mused, broken out of her train of thought. "I mean, we're being paid by the hour, not by the catch. As long as we don't screw this up, like, unsalvageably, we should be fine."

Percy hissed and nipped her arm. "Ow!" she hissed. "Okay, fine, I won't jinx us any more. Seriously, though, what are even the odds of-"

She cut off. Percy's ears had just swivelled, his whole body going tense and battle-ready as he turned. That meant-

-someone's feet scuffed the dirt-

-that they'd just caught someone. Yes! Aurelia weighed the fun of jumping up and yelling NO TRESPASSING with her odds of getting Flamethrowered and decided to take the more sensible route.

"Let's sneak around and scare the shit out of 'em," she whispered to Percy. His ears perked up.

The trespassers were whispering among themselves; Aurelia walked on soft dirt so it would muffle her footfalls and crept closer to hear what they were saying.

"-catch a few!"

"Look, did the boss ask for a few? No. He asked for an alphabet. How many letters are in the alphabet?"

"Twenty-five? No, twenty-six. But wait, does that mean we aren't going after the question marks, or-"

"We're getting twenty-six Unown."

"But what if we get, like, a double? Like two W's or something?"

"Well-" The first speaker paused. "Well, shit. I guess we catch more?"

"I mean, you could just go to a breeder," Aurelia suggested. The two trespassers startled and turned to stare at her. She sat on the edge of a wall, dangling her legs about five feet off the ground. Percy was ranging out behind the would-be poachers in case they tried to attack. "That's always an option. Like, you realize the Unown here are protected, right?"

The first speaker- a short boy with a surly expression- asked, "Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm the security guard!" Aurelia told him cheerfully. "For the rest of the week. Pretty cool, right? They pay by the hour."

"More than we're being paid," the second speaker muttered. She was a young teenager with a pair of Pokeballs at her belt and messy chin-length hair. The boy elbowed her in the ribs.

"That doesn't matter. We're being paid to get a whole alphabet of Unowns. If the boss goes to a breeder, we don't get paid. If we go to a breeder, we spend all our pay on Pokemon for someone else. And how do people breed Unown, anyway? This all sounds like Tauros-shit to me."

Aurelia waved a hand. "You need a special permit, so it's not like any rando can scoop up a couple letters and go to town or whatever, but it's totally possible. Or, heck, there's some caves off the Hoenn coast where Unown are invasive species. You could totally go there and catch a few- there's not even a bag limit."

"We can't afford to go to Hoenn!" the girl squeaked. "We took this job because we can't afford going to the next town!"

"Don't tell her that, you'll get us identified!" the boy snarled. He shot a toxic glare at Aurelia. "Get out of our way or we'll make you. You think you can stand up against a pair of trainers?"

Aurelia blinked- looked down at her casual trainer clothes- looked back up at the pair of newbies. It was hard to hide her incredulous expression. "Oh, darn," she said. "You got me there. How stupid of me, going security guarding without any way to, y'know, guard. Clearly there's no way out for me."

The boy pulled out a Pokeball and released a gigantic Druddigon. It hit the ground with a weighty thud and roared. Ha, that was pretty good training there- getting a Pokemon to roar just at the beginning of a battle was an invaluable intimidation tactic. "That's right." He attempted a leer. Oh gosh that was adorable. "You'd better back off now if you don't wanna get hurt."

"Castor!" the girl hissed. "Remember what I told you about escalating situations?" She had released her own Pokemon, a shy little Wooper that hid behind her and bubbled forlornly. Awwww.

"Is that your Druddigon?" Aurelia asked, leaning forward. "'Cause I'm pretty sure you can't get a Druddigon in Johto without a permit, dude. You get that dragon from your boss?"

"Shut up!" the boy snarled. "It doesn't matter if it's mine! Druddigon, use Night Slash!"

Aurelia yelped and vaulted over the back of the wall just as the move hit the other side. "This is a historical site, you jackass!" The Night Slash scored a deep trench in the dirt and sliced off the sole of Aurelia's left hiking boot. Shit. This was what she got for being so damn cocky all the time.

Not the first time another trainer had set their Pokemon on her, though. Most of the time they didn't consider the consequences if they actually succeeded in hitting her.

"Just leave us alone and we'll let you go," Castor said like the horror movie psychopath he apparently wanted to be. Aurelia scrambled to her feet as his Druddigon approached and weighed the pros and cons of releasing her other Pokemon. Pros: More likely to disable this Druddigon! Cons: Okay, no, there weren't any, and Percy could deal if he felt like they stole his thunder. His accomplice was staring wide-eyed between her and Castor, clutching her Wooper to her chest. and Aurelia felt kind of bad for her. It always sucked finding out your friends were jerks.

The Druddigon's maw started to glow. "I'll Hyper Beam you if you don't," the boy warned, and okay, this was getting out of hand.

"You do realize that if you use Hyper Beam here you might make a site cave in," Aurelia said, touching the Pokeballs at her waist. Heart decal, flame decal, cactus decal... ha, there. "So it might screw up an archaeological site? Kill a part of history?" Her running had led the three of them out of the main ruins; she backed up until she was almost out of them altogether and definitely out of the delicate sites. At this point she was basically stalling, and she accepted her fate. Damsel here, Percy, come on. Where even was he?

Castor shrugged. "Like I give a shit." His friend glared at him- oh, so now she was betrayed?

"Castor, she's right! This is an important place, we can't just go around destroying stuff willy-nilly- we were supposed to have a plan." A flash of white and pink against the darkness caught Aurelia's eye. She kept her eyes focused on the poacher kid and stopped herself from smiling. Looked like Zarzu wasn't necessary after all. "You never listen to me! This is going to be just like that time with the Tentacruel, okay, I'll end up in jail overnight and you'll be stuck in a cave-"-

Caves. Aurelia looked down at the ground. Was she imagining that it felt a little unstable? Usually she had a pretty good feel for when there were caves beneath her feet, but this place had all sorts of hidden aspects...

"Uuuugh." The boy crossed his arms and looked away. "I swear to all the Legendaries, this is not the time. Let's just get this over with, okay? Druddigon, use Hyper Beam!"

Welp. Time to find out. "Percy, Moonblast!"

Percy trilled and threw the full force of the moon down at the ground, and the whole world exploded white.

"So you didn't catch the names or faces of the perpetrators?" the ranger asked incredulously. Aurelia perched in a chair in his office and studied the Pokepark posters on his wall. Huh, she'd never heard of that one. Where was the Oblivia region again? "What are we even paying you for?"

"You paid me to protect the Unown populations, not to catch poachers," Aurelia pointed out, dragging her attention from the posters. Percy was socializing with the ranger's Marill. Cool, it was always nice when he made new friends. "Not a single Unown got caught."

"But you did cause a cave-in."

"The Druddigon caused a cave-in. I protected the Pokemon there from the poachers and from falling rocks." She'd mostly calmed them down after she and the two poachers had fallen right in the middle of an Ariados nest, actually, but the ranger didn't have to know that. The Ariados had been happy with her offering of Pecha berries, anyway.

They'd wanted either Castor or his hapless friend as food, too, but Aurelia had negotiated them down to Castor's shoes instead. Served him right.

The ranger pinched the bridge of his nose. "Regardless," he sighed, "this wasn't exactly what we meant to happen when we hired you. Are you certain you didn't catch the names of the perpetrators?"

Aurelia considered covering for the poachers for a moment. On one hand, they were kids. On the other hand, one of them had tried to kill her and had generally been rude and unpleasant. Yeah, that wasn't much of a choice, was it. "One of them was called Castor," she said. "He had a Druddigon. I didn't catch the other one's name or face."

"A Druddigon? Did he have a permit?"

"I didn't exactly have time to ask him for paperwork!" Not that he'd answered, at least. "It seemed like it might not have been his, though. More like a loaner Pokemon. I don't think he could control it as well as he wanted."

The ranger made a few notes. "Right. What about the other one?"

"Nothing that stood out. They were kind of quiet the whole time." Except when she'd been yelling at her friend for escalating situations. Or bringing out her Wooper. Or talking at all. Aurelia just wasn't sure that she deserved to lose her future because of a bad choice in friends. Maybe after nearly being eaten by Ariados she would realize the error of her ways.

"Hmmm. Well, thank you, Champion Aurelia. I think we'll have to bring in an actual police presence, if this sort of damage continues. We'll pay you for your work so far, but I think after this we won't require your services anymore. I hope it's not too much of an inconvenience."

Aurelia shrugged. She'd kind of been expecting this. "I've still got a bunch of Champion backpay, it's cool. It's also Trainer Aurelia. Not Champion."

The ranger smiled. "Trainer Aurelia. My mistake. Well, thank you for your help with the poachers. We've already routed your pay to your account. Do you need a ride out of the Ruins?"

"Thanks. And nah, I can walk. Nice meeting you, Ranger." Aurelia stood, made her way to the door, and paused. "Hey, can I blog about this?"

The ranger opened his mouth, closed it, and seemed to reconsider. "I... yes. I suppose. As long as you don't mention anything that puts the Ruins in a bad light."

Free speech cannot be dissuaded- nah, she didn't actually have anything against this place. "You got it, dude."

She left the visitor center feeling more cheerful than losing a job would usually warrant. Percy hopped out of the building a moment after her and bounded to catch up to her. He arched his back into her hand when she stroked his fur. "Veeeee?" Where to next?

"Cherrygrove?" A happy chirp. "It'd let Sage swim, and we could look for something more fun for our next odd job. Maybe visit Violet City next, or go all the way to New Bark Town."

She'd heard they had good apples this time of year.