Follow Me

I had no idea capturing pokémon was going to be so difficult. After maybe twenty minutes of wandering toward what I hoped was an actual footpath—a paved road was ideal given the increasing accumulation of orange dirt on the cuffs of my jeans—leading to Kalium Town, Reggie stopped abruptly, perked his ears up, and then darted into the underbrush beneath a few low trees. The bush shook violently for a few seconds when a pair of pidgey burst out into the air.

One of them took off at a bit of an arc, like it was either injured or suffering a stroke. Reggie tried to leap after it, but he couldn't quite get that high off the ground. He chased them both through the trees from ground level, watching their movements the whole time. I, on the other hand, couldn't keep track of the pidgey, but at least Reggie's orange fur created enough contrast with the surroundings that I could follow him reasonably. He darted off through the thicket and brush like they weren't even there, whereas I got pricked and poked all the way up to my rear in my failed attempts to keep up. I called after him a dozen times to come back each time I saw him leap into the air and miss swiping the birds. And then I found the magic bush.

Magic in the sense that it completely grabbed my ankles and dropped me like a bag of rocks, straight into the mud. Normally getting a little muddy is not a problem for me. In fact, it's the sign of a productive day of spelunking. But not this time. I hit so hard I ended up swallowing a mouthful of dirt. I think there was a bug in there, too, and I wasn't looking to supplement my protein intake that way just yet. I was saving that for when I get totally lost in those woods that are supposed to have no exit and I've already eaten all my supplies and traveling partners.

Reggie came back to me, unsuccessful in his attempt to catch the pidgey but no less enthused about sniffing the mud on my fingers while I sat and tried to clean my face. And then he climbed my lap and stuck that mud-covered nose next to my nose, and right after I finished wiping the mud off. That little episode is why I was grateful to find a little freshwater spring at the base of a small boulder. It had a great smell and the surface was perfectly clear. I could see every moss-covered rock, the roots of every leek, and a hydrothermal vent foaming up the surface back near the rocky wall. It was spraying hard enough to float two black pebbles. It was probably pretty warm, too.

"That's more like it," I said after I plunged my face in. The water was delicious, which is pretty unusual to hear because it's water: It doesn't taste like anything, unless you sprinkle some combee honey in it, and I doubted too many bees spent time bathing in the spring.

Speaking of animals avoiding seventy percent of the planet, Reggie was nervous about the water. He crept close to the water's edge, started to sniff it, then promptly recoiled when the water touched his nose. He tried it again and managed to find that perfect distance where he could stick his tongue in and lap it up without any other part of him actually touching to surface.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked him with a chuckle. "Cats really do hate water, don't they?" Well, I didn't. I stripped down to my shorts and jumped in for a quick bath. If I learned one thing from the Elder, it was: "You're the only one who likes it when you walk around the village covered with dirt. Girls appreciate cleanliness and guys who don't smell like stale bear urine." If he wasn't just blowing smoke, the people of Kalium Town would probably prefer I show up smelling like fresh water. Besides, it was a good chance to clean the small cut I sustained from one thorny bush that was apparently strong enough to puncture my leg through my jeans. I made a mental note that Band-Aids were probably a good supply to obtain in the future.

I stopped scrubbing myself for a moment and looked to Reggie, who was still trying to drink without touching water. "Do you think Max was right? Did I just get dirty all the time because it drew attention to me?" He didn't answer. He just continued to stare at the water in fearful-pounce position. Weird cat. "Why am I asking you? You don't understand a word I say. Water's really not that bad, either." I splashed a little water his way and watched him hurl himself backward, away from the spring.

Chuckling to myself, I leaned forward to submerge my head again. The tree foliage wasn't as thick around here and the sun was out in force. The water felt even nicer the second time around. Not as cold and bracing, allowing me to enjoy the refreshment all the more. I held my position for a few seconds before I realized, I can't get up.

The instant I felt resistance on my back, I panicked and thrashed around. One quick move to my right enabled me to surface again. I whipped back and forth, looking for my assailant, so quickly I think I gave myself whiplash. I didn't see anything unusual. No pidgeys bent on vengeance. No combees swarming overhead. In fact, I couldn't see any other pokémon than Reggie. The only thing that even caught my attention out of the corner of my eye was the excessive foam around my right leg.

I didn't even have time to get a better look before the foam expanding and swung at me like a tidal wave. My feet reacted with my eyesight and moved me forward just as the wave came crashing down, but the friction of the water slowed me too much and my legs got caught up in the foam. The force was like getting punched in the thigh, and it knocked me into the soil while orange flames bore down just past me and raised the temperature dramatically. Suddenly the force on my legs dissipated. I immediately took the opportunity to scramble out of the water.

Solid ground never felt so good to me. I took a few deep breaths to settle myself and then shot Reggie a look of annoyance. "You could have told me that's why you were afraid of the water."

The bubble foamed up again and swirled violently, somehow spraying a small stream of water from the spring straight at Reggie. He was quick enough to avoid the bulk of the spray, but he did still suffer a significant drenching. I recognized the shiver that ran down his spine. It was the same shiver that hit Aphrodite every time she suffered a fire attack. "Oh, right. Water is your weakness! That's why you were afraid of the water."

The water continued to foam despite the fact that I no longer disturbed the surface. Suddenly I realized those black spots were not floating pebbles: They were eyes.

"Is that a pokémon?" I wondered. "Hit it with Ember." I know he did it before on his own, but it just seemed like Reggie mustered so much more power from his tiny, flaming tongue when his move had a name. The cloud of fire smothered the foaming water, and when it receded intentionally, I knew it was alive. I reached into the sack Old Man Max gave me and pulled out an empty pokéball. "My first capture!"

Releasing that pokéball was the greatest feeling I'd ever had. Reggie was an awesome first pokémon, and this foaming creature was going to add water attacks to my arsenal. With this on my team, I was on my way to becoming the next Pokémon Champion. The ball sucked the red energy inside, closed, and bounced with the sealing sensor bright red. "Awesome!"

Suddenly the ball broke open. The foamy pokémon emerged on the hard ground. Now I got a better look at its form. Most notable was its lack of a definite shape. It wasn't like a purely sentient collection of bubbles. It's tough to explain. Maybe the best way to think of it is a giant slug wearing covered with large, foaming bubbles. An odd creature to be sure, the foam didn't come from being in the water, and its body was unaffected by being on land.

"What in the world is that?"

That's when I remembered something:

Brooke took a small, red device from her pocket. It was about the size of her palm. She aimed it at the pokémon and I realized from the lens that it was more like a cell phone with a camera in it. She stood in silence for about a minute when she finally started reading from the phone thing. "That's a whismur," she read. "Usually its cries are like quiet murmurs, but when frightened, it can shriek at volumes of 140 decibels."

"The pokédex!" I reached into the sack and grabbed the age-worn pokédex the old man gave me. Following Brooke's example, I pointed the lens at the foaming creature and heard the device click upon recognition. I expected it to wait for a minute or so like Brooke's did, but the blue light on the pokédex lit up, and an image of a similar creature popped up on the screen inside.

027-Foamert
Foaming Pokémon
[Normal]
Average Height: 1'8"
Average Weight: 2.4 lb.
It generates inert bubbles that can be used to confuse the enemy and to provide devastating attacks from the environment.

"A foamert?" I read. "This is so cool! What can it do?" I pressed the "Abilities" button to see a brief description of foamert's abilities. Apparently, even as a normal-type pokémon, it had the capacity to learn attacks from a variety of elements, though its true proclivity was with physical, neutral-element attacks. "That's not bad. Where does it live?" Suddenly a clod of top soil slammed onto the ground, narrowly missing Reggie. "Oh, right. Probably not the best time for that."

The pokédex description of the foamert was right. On land, this pokémon was able to swirl around and tear chunks from the moist ground by the spring and hurl them at my little simbder. It occurred to me at that moment that as a fire-type, Reggie was probably not a big fan of having pieces of the ground thrown at him, either.

"Intimidate it with a Growl attack!" I suggested. Reggie puffed up his breast and let loose a fully supported, richly-toned growl that sounded like a small engine. The foamert shrank back momentarily, but then it spread itself wide as it lunged full-bodied. It may be a small pokémon, but this thing certainly was bold and gutsy.

Struck with an epiphany, I told Reggie, "Brace yourself right there. Endure the hit!" Now Reggie shrank back in anticipation of the opponent's Tackle. It was a tough hit to take from a pokémon still carrying moisture on its body, but after the veil of bubbles splashed down on my simbder, I told him, "Now use Ember!" It took a moment longer than usual for Reggie to get started, yet a bright burst of fire emerged under the foamert's body and smothered it.

The foamert was singed heavily by the attack. Reggie pushed his way from under the pokémon and pounced back on it, looking as proud as the day he tackled Brooke's canisouse. It was my first day as a pokémon trainer, but I thought right then I might never see a more perfect opportunity to throw a pokéball.

"Back, Reggie," I said. He promptly removed himself from the weakened foamert just as I let a second pokéball fly. It snapped a few bubbles as it slapped against the sluggish skin and turned the pokémon into a mass of red energy once more. When the pokéball shut, I crossed my fingers and hoped I remembered to weaken it enough this time. The ball shook violently as the foamert tried to resist the taming technology. "Come on…"

And then the ball stopped rocking. I held my breath for a moment, just waiting for it to burst open like the other one did. But it didn't happen. "Did it work?" I asked Reggie. He just looked at me hopefully, though he did try to beat me to the pokéball. I managed to snatch it off the ground before he could get it, though.

It felt… amazing. Emotions swarmed through me while I held the ball and stared at it. It didn't move or do any tricks, yet it felt like holding the universe in the palm of my hand. This fruit-sized device represented my first real step into the world of pokémon training. I felt completely renewed. This was my second wind. No matter how tedious traveling through the woods could be with every tree nearly identical and rattatas scurrying everywhere, looking at this ball would remind me how awesome life was about to get!

With a fist clenched around the pokéball and thrusting it into the air, I left out a loud yell of excitement. "Yeah! My first capture!"

I heard a soft, somewhat musical chuckle at that moment. It faded instantly and I couldn't see anything else nearby. No other pokémon in the area moved, except Reggie's ears perked up and he was looking away from me past the spring.

"What did you hear?" I asked him. He never turned to look at me. He took a step in that direction and stopped, waiting and watching like a predator stalking his prey. That time I was certain the gasping sound I heard came from a person. From the timbre of it, it sounded female. Suddenly I was very aware that I wore nothing but wet boxer shorts. I couldn't tell if I changed colors at all, but I felt my face burn up as I scrambled to get my clothes back on. I could still see the places where I hit the mud with them, but at least no more packs of mud clung to them after I wiped them down.

"Who's there?" I asked once I was finally dressed.

"I'm sorry," came a girl's voice from behind a tree. "I didn't mean to spy on you."

"Well, I know you're there now. If you come out so I can see you, it won't be spying."

That seemed like a perfectly rational suggestion, but she still didn't step out right away. I waited through an awkward ten seconds before she finally took a single step and hesitated again. At least now I was certain there was actually someone there and I wasn't just hearing things. She wore at least one white shoe, and up to her knee, her leg was thin and so pale I wasn't sure it was a leg at first.

She finally stopped using the tree as a shield and unintentionally gave me the impression she never spent any time in the sun. Her legs were the only exposed skin she showed except for some of her face. She wore a white blouse with blue flowers sewn on and a black skirt to her knees. Over all of that, she wore a green cloak with the hood pulled up over her head. I couldn't even see her face all that well thanks to the big sunglasses she wore, but her chin was just as pale as her legs.

As an aside to Reggie, I asked softly, "Would Brooke put a contract out on me?"

The girl had pretty good ears. "What? I'm not an assassin. I just… burn easily, and the sun's pretty bright today."

"Oh. Well, that makes sense. I'm Gus. It's nice to meet you…?" I extended my hand and stepped in her direction.

"That's it?" she asked. She sounded puzzled, and her brow furrowed noticeably against her pale skin. "No more questions? I just tell you I'm not an assassin and you believe me?"

I stopped. "Well, are you an assassin?"

"No."

"Then why should I worry? What's your name?"

She was still puzzled. "I'm Fey. Who is Brooke, and why do you think she might've hired a hitwoman to kill you?"

I chuckled through saying, "She's just my sister. It's a very love-hate relationship."

"It sounds frightening."

"And you haven't even met her. That's pretty good, Fey." She still hadn't managed any kind of positive emotional expression by the time we joined hands and greeted one another more formally. Up close like this, it was easier to tell how much taller she was than I. She was at least head-and-shoulders higher, yet thin enough to weigh no extra. Her hair was snow white like an old lady's, which is why her rather smooth skin confused me. "How old are you?"

She blushed before answering, "Eighteen."

"Really? And your hair is white already? What happened? Did you see a ghost? Did you just move here from the tundra where it helped you blend in better? Oh! Your mother is probably going gray already and suffering intense self-esteem loss, so you did that to make her feel better."

"It's just how my hair grew," she insisted.

Now Fey seemed a bit angered by my joking. Her hair was obviously a touchy subject, so I simply said, "It looks great. You clearly take good care of it. I wish I could say the same." I ran my fingers through my hair and realized I still didn't get all the mud out of it with that little bath.

Her features softened again and she managed a little smile. "Apology accepted."

"I didn't apologize."

"Maybe not in those words," she corrected me. "Congratulations on catching that foamert. I'd heard one was spotted out here."

"Oh." I suddenly felt a bit guilty, but also pretty proud. "Is that why you came out here? Were you hoping to capture it?"

"Foamerts are usually spotted a bit farther south in the marshes where the rainfall is higher. Mostly I wanted to see if there really was one here. I'm a tad disappointed not to capture it myself, but maybe it's better to go to a fledgling trainer."

"Isn't a fledgling a low-flying bird?"

Fey gave me a silent, confused stare for a moment. "No. I just mean you're new."

"How can you tell?"

"First of all, you wasted a pokéball without even really starting a battle. That's a telltale rookie mistake."

"I didn't waste it," I argued. I walked back over to the spring and picked up the first pokéball I had thrown. Maybe it didn't work the first time, but I could reuse it later… except the sealing mechanism had a pretty large crack in it. How did that happen? "It broke!"

"That's usually what happens when a pokémon overpowers the pokéball. They often do so with such force that the machinery breaks. You didn't know that?"

"It's kind of my second day."

Suddenly her expression changed. Now she looked a little more impressed. "Well, then double congratulations for catching another pokémon already."

"What did you mean when you suggested a foamert was good for a newbie?" There were times when I didn't mind what other people had to say, but this girl seemed to know a lot more about training than I did. I thought all trainers were hardcore nuts for capturing every species of pokémon they didn't already have, but Fey seemed okay with not capturing this foamert, and I suspected it wasn't because she had another already.

"It only has two evolutionary stages and its baseline stats aren't all that high." My lack of understanding must have shown in a blank stare or something because she asked, "Is that knowledge too specialized for you?"

"No. I just don't know what it means."

She giggled. "Well, maybe you should spend some time at the Pokémon Gym in Kalium Town. It's a great place for new trainers to go and learn about training, plus you get to test your mettle against other trainers who use similar pokémon to yours. That simbder will fit right in the Field Gym."

"Awesome! Kalium Town is where I was supposed to go, anyway." I looked through the thin canopy overhead and followed the sun, trying to remember which direction it was back to Old Man Max's place. If that way was north with a bit of a western bearing… "I may be a little lost."

"Don't worry. We're not far. Follow me!"


With his second pokémon in hand, Gus is finally off to Kalium Town, where he hopes to learn about pokémon training and maybe a little bit about the human condition. Fey seems a bit strange but Gus isn't threatened. What's her story? Thanks to WolfSummoner93 for submitting Fey.
Next time: Kalium Town is bustling with activity. What's with all the bananas? And what's that huge creature following Brooke out of the gym?

Trivia:
Foamert's name is a combination of foam and inert, representing its normal-type status.
Simbder's name is a combination of simba and tinder, representing its status as a fire lion.
I am not proud of my random naming ability, and so every pokémon I've created is a combination of two words.