"So, what are you going to do first? Do you want to head to the nearest gym right away, or train for a little while?" Alan asked, making small talk as we entered Route A.
Route A was mostly flat field with a few trees. If our town were to ever expand, it would be there. Until then, it is a neglected area full of weeds and tall grass, so much that whatever path there might have been was gone, and we had to rely fully on the GPS on our Pokedexes. The grass waved in the wind, tempting us with its secrets.
"I want to train, of course. I can't win battles if I haven't practiced." I answered.
"That's why you chose this path, right?"
I nodded. I chose Route A because I figured it would have the most Pokemon. This was a contrast to the often used Route C, the path Emily chose, which was always clean and had few Pokemon.
"Speaking of training, do you want to have a battle? We haven't met our Pokemon yet, and there's no better way to get to know them than with a battle!" Alan said excitedly.
I only partially agreed with him. I would rather have met and bonded a little with Snivy before battling. However, I didn't want to seem ungrateful to a new friend, so I agreed to the fight.
He smiled, "All right, don't worry, I don't think Tepig knows any fire moves yet, so it should be pretty balanced. Go, Tepig!" Alan threw the Pokeball and it released the fire red pig. It grunted as soon as it formed, and ran around in circles excitedly.
My heart beat fast as I gripped my Pokeball. I was a little nervous about meeting my Pokemon for the first time. I could only hope it would like me. I threw the ball and yelled, "Go, Snivy!" It just felt right to say something.
The green, snakelike Pokemon raised its head high, fanning its leafy tail and standing with its two stubby legs. It glanced at me with its large brown eyes for a second, then focused its attention to Tepig, as if analyzing it.
Alan made the first move. "Tepig, tackle attack!"
The pig ran straight for Snivy, lowering its head in preparation for the collision. Snivy spun gracefully away, dodging the attack. Tepig took a moment to stop running, and looked around in confusion when it realized it hadn't hit anything.
It was time to retaliate. "Snivy, tackle it back!" Snivy looked directly at me, as though considering if what I said was in fact the best option, and then complied, collapsing itself on top of Tepig, who reacted by tossing Snivy onto the ground, and with another command from Alan, tackled Snivy into surrender, quickly ending the battle.
"All right! We won!" Alan cheered. His Tepig ran up to him, jumping in celebration. He knelt down and picked it up, causing its springy tail to wag furiously.
The Pokedex in my pocket beeped, and I pulled it out, wondering why it had made the sound. I opened it and saw my balance on the screen before it went down by a few Pokedollars. Alan's 'Dex had apparently done the same, as he checked it as well.
"Oh yeah, since I won the battle I won a little money from you," he said, "But I don't want to take anything, maybe we can battle again and you'll get it back?"
There was a big risk to battling, especially when starting off. When we became Trainers, a small amount of money was but into a bank account specifically for battles like these. Whenever a Trainer wins or loses, the money is either taken in or out of the account, which the Trainer can then use for whatever they want. If this account is ever completely emptied, one legally has to either take money from another of their bank accounts and put it into their Trainer balance or give up all their Pokemon and stop being a Trainer. I wasn't too worried about the loss, as I had saved up quite a bit of money for this purpose, and my parents had agreed to lend some of their money if I'm ever in a tight spot.
"No, it's fine, you can keep the money," I said kindly, "You won fair and square."
"All right, if you insist," Alan didn't pursue it any further.
I went over to Snivy, who had pushed itself back onto its feet.
"Are you okay?" I asked it, crouching down and petting its head. Its skin was smooth, like a leaf. It blinked, looking up at me. Its large eyes telling me all I needed to know. I smiled, "That's a relief. Don't worry, we'll get them next time."
"It looks fine to me, maybe a little winded," Alan observed.
"Yeah, I know," I confirmed, standing up and looking down at Snivy, "I don't think it needs a Pokemon Center or anything yet."
"That's good. So, now that that's done, let's keep going! I think that maybe we should keep our Pokemon out for the time being, it'll be more fun that way." Alan suggested, lowering Tepig back to the ground where it continued to run around in circles.
"Yeah, let's do it!" I said excitedly. The battle, even though I lost, had really gotten my spirits up. I had a Pokemon, and we were going to get stronger together. "Let's go Pokemon hunting!"
With that, we began moving forward, scanning the grass for any Pokemon to battle or capture. Snivy was difficult to keep my eye on, barely rustling the grass as it slid through it. Luckily, it stayed near me. Alan wasn't so lucky.
"Tepig, we aren't going that way, get back here!" he called. A patch of grass several yards away rustled and grunted, and Tepig began to run back toward Alan before getting distracted and running sideways. I laughed as Alan had to chase it down.
"Hey, Tepig found a Pokemon!" Alan exclaimed, "It's a Zigzagoon!"
I ran over to Alan and whipped out my Pokedex. Tepig and Zigzagoon were already beginning to tussle playfully, moving around rapidly. I scanned the Zigzagoon with my Pokedex, not to learn more about it, as I already knew a considerable amount, but to register it. After all, my end goal was to see and maybe capture every Pokemon in the world. Alan did the same, but let the Dex read off the description.
"Zigzagoon, the tiny raccoon Pokemon. This Pokemon is curious about everything it sees, and as such often travels in a zig-zag pattern. It uses the spiky hairs on its back to mark its territory."
Alan pondered for a moment, looking at his Pokedex. "Hmm, I don't think I want this one. It doesn't seem to be all that useful. What about you, Will?"
"No, I don't think so either. You can go ahead and train on it." I had few Pokeballs and very little money, and I only wanted Pokemon that I knew I could become close with, at least for the time being.
"All right, Tepig, do what you do best!" Tepig obeyed, tackling the Zigzagoon. It cried out in pain, caught off guard by the attack. Once it realized what was going down, it braced itself, growling angrily. Tepig was clearly a bit worried now, but continued its attacks on it.
In the end, the battle was an easy victory for Alan. The Zigzagoon collapsed onto the ground, whimpering in fear. Alan and Tepig celebrated, in much the same way they did after they defeated me and Snivy.
"You've had your fun, but next time, I get to battle the Pokemon," I teased, "and it won't take nearly as long as you did."
Alan laughed, "Still salty over the loss? Who knows, maybe the next Pokemon we find will be more your speed. Anyway, we have plenty of time before night, so we can stay here as long as we like."
So that's what we did. It took several minutes for each encounter, but we managed to find and defeat several Rattatta, Bunnelby, and a few other things. We were feeling more comfortable with our Pokemon and their abilities, and even learned a few attacks, Ember for Tepig, making that its first fire attack, and Vine Whip for Snivy.
However, not every Pokemon encounter went so smoothly. A couple of hours had passed, and I was too busy looking down at the grass to notice the Pokemon eyeing me up in a nearby tree.
The sun was still bright in the sky, and I was starting to sweat from the heat and exertion required to simply trudge through the absurdly tall grass. "I need a break." I announced, and went under the shade of the tree, leaning against the trunk. Snivy silently followed suit, relaxing at my feet. I looked down at it and felt proud. Proud that I had not only given this little animal an owner, but that I had helped it grow stronger as well. I was confident that we could handle whatever threats this route had to offer, because all things considering, most Pokemon that decided to live here weren't very strong. But life has a way of proving you wrong one way or another, as was the case when a Tailow swooped down from the tree and attacked.
Tailow are little black birds that are extremely territorial, and I guess I decided to rest under the wrong tree, because it was assaulted me, crying loudly. I shouted in surprise as it swooped down from a branch and made direct contact. It would have appeared comical, me swinging my arms furiously at the air, hoping for a lucky hit, but I felt the stakes were too high to make room for humor at the time. Its beak was frighteningly sharp, and it used it to puncture holes in my clothes and skin.
After hearing my shout, Snivy perked up, and saw the black streak that was Tailow, of which there were now two. It used its vine whip to try to smack the birds away from me, and after several failed attempts, a few vines accidentally hitting me, it made contact. The Tailows turned their attention away from me and immediately began attacking Snivy. Snivy was a little better off than me, being able to defend itself with its vines, but Tailow still managed to get several hits off.
It wasn't until Alan's Tepig scared it off with its ember attack that we felt safe again. We decided to sit out in the sun rather than risk going to another tree and have another Tailow after us.
"Are you all right?" Alan asked me, now that we were out of danger.
"Yeah, just a few scratches. My bag has a first aid kit with bandages, so it's no big deal." While what I said was true, what I didn't want to admit was that they stung more than I felt an injury of that size should, though maybe I was just unused to pain.
"You might need to patch up your clothes, though." Alan pointed out. I looked down at my shirt, which with its creamy yellow color looked a lot like Swiss cheese.
"What about you, Snivy? Feeling all right?" I asked. It looked a little worse for wear, with a few bruises and a defeated look in its eyes.
"I think you should return it to its Pokeball, to give it a bit of a break." Alan suggested.
I agreed, pulling its Pokeball from my belt and pressing the button. Snivy lowered its head and allowed the red beam to envelop it, causing it to slowly dissolve into the same red energy and return to the confines of the ball. Alan decided to do the same with Tepig, and so we sat alone together.
"You know, I'm really glad I got Tepig." Alan said, "Its really energetic and fun to train, and it makes sure it gets what it wants across to you, and won't stop bothering you until you listen," he chuckled, "but with your Snivy, I don't know how you know what its thinking. It just kind of stares into space, if you catch my drift."
I nodded, "Snivy doesn't seem to do much, but its intelligent, and I feel I can usually understand its feelings, at least a little. Tepig is too much of a handful if you ask me."
"Different Pokemon for different people, I guess," Alan looked at his Pokedex, "Well, we have a couple of hours until dark, but I think we should start finding a place to camp for tonight, to give us enough time to figure out how to build the tents."
"You don't know how to build a tent?" I asked incredulously, "It's not too hard, I can show you."
Some time later, we had both of our tents up. We decided to set them up a good distance away from the main path, as we didn't want to take any risks with other people taking our things. There were plenty of groups out there that would be more than willing to steal our Pokemon. I got mine up first, showing Alan how to do it, but he still struggled when it was his turn. It didn't help that the tent he had was old and worn, making it a lot harder to set up properly. We lay around for a while as the sun set, then I took out some of the food that was in my pack for dinner.
"Let's have supper, then we'll go to bed, alright?" I asked Alan. I was feeling more comfortable with him now that we had been around each other for a while.
"Oh, I, uh, forgot to bring any," he said awkwardly. "That's OK though, I can hold out until we get to Argus town tomorrow."
I laughed good naturedly. "No you're not. Come over here and I'll split this sandwich with you." He obliged without complaint.
I didn't want to state the obvious, but I had put the clues together. Alan must not have had the richest of families. Maybe he was becoming a Trainer to support his family. If that's the case, there were many other jobs that paid much more than this. Whatever the reason, I didn't want to bring it up with him. He would talk about it when he wanted to.
I was glad I let him keep the prize money, in any case.
"Our Pokemon should probably eat, too." I mentioned, pulling out a bag of Pokemon kibble.
"Good idea." Alan said, taking the Pokeball out of its holster on his waist and tossing it. Tepig appeared with a flash of light, and immediately started running toward Alan. He laughed, picking Tepig up and holding it to his face. But then his face fell.
"Man, I didn't prepare very well, did I? Can I borrow some of your food, and I'll be sure to pay you back once we get to Argus town."
"Of course. No problem, I have plenty." I told him, releasing Snivy from its Pokeball. "All right, Snivy, are you ready for dinner?"
It looked at me as though it didn't know how to respond. I took a piece of food from the bag and handed it to Snivy. It gently took it out of my hand, smelled it, and swallowed it whole, not bothering to chew. I guess that's to be expected from a snake.
"I can't promise that it tastes good, Mom made it and it was her first time," I said. I gave one handful of kibble to Snivy, and another to Alan.
"Hmm, maybe I could taste test it," Alan said, studying a piece.
"That stuff is for Pokemon. It'll probably taste terrible to us no matter how high quality it is," I warned.
"Let's see about that." Alan smiled and put one in his mouth. As soon as it entered his mouth he spit it back out, couching and retching dramatically. "You were right, holy Arceus that's bad!"
I laughed as he continued to spit and rinse his mouth with water from his bottle, gargling it like mouthwash. Tepig found the kibble Alan spit out and ate it. I laughed harder.
"Eww, come on Tepig, I have a whole handful of food here!" Alan exclaimed, lowering his kibble filled hand to the ground. Tepig ran up to Alan and sloppily ate it, most of the handful pushed to the ground by Tepig's nose. Tepig didn't care and ate the rest off the floor.
"Geez, guy has no manners," Alan joked, wiping the crumbs off his hands.
Once we had finished eating the sun had set almost completely, and the moon had appeared, stars slowly appearing one by one after it. I looked back on what had happened today. A big change had been made. I was leaving my old life behind, and a new one was in front of me, looming with an aura I couldn't yet determine. I heard Hoothoot start their nightly calls. They were louder here than at home. Small things like that served as a reminder that this is real. This is finally happening, and I was excited.
"Good night Will! We want to wake up early for tomorrow!" Alan said to me as he went into his tent, zipping up the flaps.
"'Night," I replied sleepily, receding into my own tent. I hoped I wouldn't have too much trouble sleeping in a new area. I had been camping around this area before, but this felt different. I tossed and turned in my sleeping bag, thinking about my new Pokemon and all that came with it. After some minutes, I fell asleep to the sound of the nocturnal Pokemon's cries.
