By the time they got to Floccesy Town, it was lunchtime. Right outside of town Lisbeth and Tepig stopped to eat. Lisbeth had a sandwich she had packed that morning, but that was the only food she had. She would have to buy more in town. For Tepig, she had a bag of apricots for him to eat. Usually it only takes two or three of them to fill up a pokemon's stomach.
While Lisbeth and Tepig were eating, a man appeared in the clearing where they were eating. He was a tall man with broad shoulders; he wore a large poncho-type garb and a string of pokeballs around his neck. And he had a middle-aged face that had a wizened look about it. But, the most striking thing about him was his bright orange hair.
He paused several feet in front of her. "Hello. My name is Alder. One of my goals is to tell people about how wonderful it is to walk toward the future together with pokemon. And you are?"
Lisbeth blinked in surprise. "I'm Lisbeth, from Aspertia City."
He inspected her and her pokemon. "That's a very fine Tepig you have there, but you're not exactly a seasoned trainer yet. Come with me, I'll give you some training."
"Uhm...uh, okay." Lisbeth said, slightly taken aback by Alder's directness.
Tepig followed behind them, not very happy about not being able to finish his apricots.
Alder led them into Floccesy Town, which was quite a small town indeed. It was only maybe twenty or thirty homes in a cluster, with a grocery store, pokemon center, training and basic schools. They were headed toward the training school.
Inside there was a small beginner class of sixteen year olds. Alder directed Lisbeth to a thin girl with pale hair.
"Battle." Alder instructed.
"Follow me out back to the battling area." The girl said.
Lisbeth followed, and they engaged in battle. The girl had a Purloin and a Lillipup. Tepig and Lisbeth celebrated their second victory.
Alder once again inspected Lisbeth and Tepig. "Yes, you both have much potential and good heart. You will be a great trainer. Perhaps we will meet again in the future."
"Uh, thanks." Lisbeth said.
"You may leave now, or if you wish, you can stay and continue to train with the students."
"Stay! I want to have a go at her!" Someone called.
"Me too!" Called another.
"Yeah, let's see if she can beat me!"
Lisbeth laughed. "I guess I'll be staying then."
For the rest of the day, she and Tepig trained with the trainers-in-training of the Floccesy Town training school. After many battles, some hard, others easy, nobody could beat Lisbeth, and Tepig had grown considerably stronger.
That night Lisbeth and Tepig slept in the pokemon center resting room for trainers who were traveling around and needed a place to sleep for the night.
"Good job today, Tepig. You did great." Lisbeth whispered to her pokemon as they were falling asleep.
"Tepig..." He cooed as he drifted off to sleep.
...
In the middle of the night Tepig urgently woke her up. He was nudging her and crying out, making quite the ruckus.
"Tepig! Tepig!" He cried.
Lisbeth sat up and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place. The trainer who was sleeping on a couch across the room was still asleep, oblivious to the commotion Tepig was making.
"It's alright, Tepig." Lisbeth soothed.
But Tepig was insistent. "Tepig!"
He nudged Lisbeth until she got up to look around the room and in the hallway. Nothing seemed out of place to her. She came back into the resting room and climbed back into her sleeping bag.
"It's okay, Tepig, nobody is there." She said, half asleep.
Tepig grumbled in frustration. "Tepig..."
Lisbeth drifted back to sleep, and Tepig kept watch until he couldn't stay awake any longer.
