Author's Note:

A relatively quick update in compensation for what will likely be a rather long wait for the next chapter because of the recent release of Fire Emblem Fates. Just thought I would throw that out there…

With much gratitude to Princesslostsoul for the Favorite and Follow, and to cassjo for the latter! Continue giving me encouragement, guys, for I just might be needing it…!

Disclaimer:

Pokémon and any other referential materials found in this story do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners and subsidiaries, and I claim no ownership of them.

Of Children, Men, and Monsters

Chapter Twenty-Four: Common Courtesy

Cue music – Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal Version soundtrack – Route 30

It was a rather pleasant morning outside, now that Marza thought about it. The sun was shining across the horizon, the flowers blooming, and the birds…

'Well, actually, they aren't technically birds, are they? Just Pokémon that happen to look like birds.'

Anyways, they were chirping up a storm of noise, with the cries of Piaget and a couple of other species she didn't recognize.

'A relatively normal morning by this world's standards, I believe,' she concluded, correctly at that. Oscura followed at her feet, as usual, also looking around in curiosity.

It was about as active a morning outside the Pokémon Center as it was inside, it would seem. A relatively miniscule amount of people were going about outside in the mildly chilly morning air, saying a word or two to the few that they passed by. Marza spotted the man who showed her around town yesterday afternoon reading a book, apparently waiting for someone new to come along and promptly show them around the undeniably quaint little town.

The path to New Bark Town was decidedly not her destination, however. Instead, she went over to the northern gate of the City of Fragrant Flowers and left the town that way.

This Route – apparently the Thirtieth by whatever system they used when it came to identifying the things – inexplicably felt a bit more lively than the previous. Maybe it was the fact that the time at which Marza was travelling was now morning rather than evening, and that there were thusly a great deal more Pokémon scurrying about…?

'And there I go again, thinking about generally pointless things.'

"Moving on! To more adventure and new discoveries!" she intentionally said aloud, possible in an attempt to excite herself and drive the rest of the tired feeling from her body and mind.

"… And that sounded exceptionally cheesy, didn't it, Oscura?"

A prompt nod.

"Knew it. Ah, well," she sighed.

"With all due seriousness, though, we'd better get a move on. We don't want to keep Elm waiting, and we have our own agenda on top of that!"

Another, significantly more enthused nod.

And then they moved on. A fairly large patch of tall grass was blocking the way forward, so, seeing as how there was no practical way around it, the pair of girls didn't hesitate to wade in and get out as fast as possible, avoiding any encounters with wild Pokémon.

In the second patch of grass, however, they were not quite as fortunate: another unfamiliar Pokémon sprang out at them. This one sported an insectoid appearance, with six limbs ending in circular white objects and five black spots on its red carapace. Marza was quick in taking out her Pokédex, and after a moment, it showed on its display:

"Pokédex Number One Hundred Sixty-Five: Ledyba, the Five Star Pokémon. Typing: Bug-Flying. Ability: Swarm. It is very timid. It will be afraid to move if it is alone, but it will be more active if it is in a group."

'Wait… A group?'

A quick glance around the perimeter revealed no less than a dozen pairs of similar-looking eyes to the Ledyba in front of them watching the confrontation. They appeared a decent amount bigger than the eyes of this Pokémon, as well, which lead Marza to believe that this particular specimen was a youngling sent out on one of its first real battles.

Not wanting to get mauled by a pack of relatively large bugs, Marza dictated to the currently waiting Oscura, "Take it easy on this one. We're being watched by a bunch of other Pokémon – probably this one's family – and I don't think we can take them all on at once…"

Cue music – Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal Version soundtrack – Battle! (Wild Pokémon)

Though a bit wounded in terms of her pride, Oscura nodded in acquiescence, slowly sidling forth before getting the drop on her new-found opposition, opening up with a shoulder bash. The unexpected speed caught the opposition off-guard, sending the Pokémon flying. It caught itself with relative ease because of its wings, however, and it charged right back at Oscura in return. This did not serve to deter the Larvitar to any significant degree, both because of her heavy weight and tough skin, but she was still shoved back a couple of inches or so because of the attack's sheer momentum.

Whilst this went down, Marza thought, 'Oh, shoot, what was that one obviously offensive Move besides Outrage... Ah, yes!'

"Try giving your foe a Bite, Oscura!"

She carefully propped herself, aiming for someplace that wouldn't leave any sort of permanent injury before chomping down, cringing at the taste of bug flesh. The Five Star Pokémon yowled in pain, thrashing wildly for several seconds. It only managed to get away after Oscura let it do so, and it glared at its opponent before it began to rapidly gyrate its wings, letting out a high-frequency noise. Oscura covered her ears, wincing at the sound, as did Marza (much to the other Pokémon's befuddlement), leaving Oscura open to an attack.

One Tackle later, and the painful ringing in both of the females' ears stopped, though Oscura was now lying on the ground, the air potentially knocked out of her, unlike Marza.

'And that is what I get for allowing myself to get distracted'

"You alright, Oscura!?"

A muffled-by-the-dirt "Tar…" was the Rock Skin Pokémon's response.

"Okay, scratch that! Are you still able to battle, Oscura?"

She slowly got herself up from the ground, eyes widening when she saw the Ledyba already closing in again. Reacting fast, she stood her ground, this time remaining up-right as she was prepared for the assault. She grabbed her foe, tossing it the ground roughly before again using Bite.

For the second time, the Ledyba screeched, though it managed to break away on its own. Instead of continuing to pursue the fight, it instead settled on buzzing away, fleeing from a battle that it now knew it could not win and saving itself from the humiliation of true defeat and the injuries therein.

Marza held her breath, still very much aware and weary of the other dozen-ish Ledyba that surrounded them. After several seconds of relative silence, permeated only by the wind and Oscura' quiet pants of exertion, the sets of eyes, one by one, revealed themselves before flying off after their defeated comrade.

Oscura slowly paced over to her partner, not appearing too tired after a bit of rest, smiling up at the lass in pride.

"Good job, Oscura, especially with that persistence. I believe that you deserve a reward for this, in fact…"

After some rummaging around in her carry-on pack, she procured a couple of small pieces of hard candy. A few unwrappings later, she handed them to Oscura to eat. She happily munched on them, not appearing to acknowledge the fact that these types of candy were meant to be sucked on before being chewed.

A beep from the Pokédex in her pocket caught Marza's attention while she observed Oscura eating. Taking it out, she tapped the notice on the screen, which promptly brought up some text.

"Oscura had learned Sandstorm, a Ground-type Move that summons a toned down version of its namesake to steadily damage all non-Rock, Ground, and Steel-types over a lengthy period of time."

And just below that:

"See also: Sand Veil Ability."

She next tapped the suggested link, curious as to what precisely this Ability entailed since she remembered the Pokédex mentioning Oscura having this Ability during Lyra's confrontation with the Pidgey the previous day.

"Any Pokémon that has this Ability will have its general agility sharply raised during a sandstorm."

'Hmm… An easy move combo for a quick boost in stats while also hindering the enemy, is it? I would like it were it not for the fact that it's a sandstorm we're talking about spontaneously whipping up!'

"Interesting," she said aloud and succinctly in terms of the new possibilities presented to the pair. Oscura looked up at her in curiosity, finished with her candy by this point.

"Well, you learned a new Move, Sandstorm. Probably not going to be using it any time soon, though – it's not really the most considerate of things to do… well, at any place that isn't a desert."

Considering that she (somehow) knew what a sandstorm was and what it usually did, Oscura nodded in agreement to this.

"Good to see you are polite enough to know to not do that unless necessary."

Marza then inquired, "How do you know what a sandstorm is, anyway?"

Oscura, in turn, entered her own pensive silence before shrugging.

"The fact that you know so much without being taught is quite strange, isn't it?"

A nod from the Pokémon tyke.

"Well, that aside, I think that we ought to keep moving. Want to ride with me or not?"

Oscura shook her horned head in the negative. Marza felt internally relieved by this – the young Pokémon was really quite heavy for her relatively miniscule size!

The pair of girls then progresses onwards.

Many Pokémon were spotted by the two as they progressed, all but one of them avoiding them, as they had probably seen the battle that they had emerged victorious from earlier. The singular one that did approach was a bird-esque Pokémon that reminded Marza of the Pidgey species. Upon taking out the Pokédex, it read:

"Pokédex Number Twenty-One: Spearow, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. Typing: Normal-Flying. Ability: Keen Eye. Very protective of its territory, it flaps its short wings busily to dart around at high speeds."

'Protective of its territory…'

She slowly backed away from the Spearow, waving at Oscura to do the same. She did not like the glare it was giving them, especially when its stare intensified when it locked eyes with the other Pokémon in a challenging manner. Though again taking a wound to her pride, Oscura obeyed the human's request.

The Tiny Bird Pokémon appeared contented by these actions, flying off and into a nearby tree where it began to carefully preen its tiny feathers.

"Another encounter avoided… Shall we continue onwards, Oscura?"

She let out a cheerful "Tar!" in response and agreement.

Cue music – Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal Version soundtrack – Route 30

T'was three quarters of an hour later when Marza and Oscura came along a small housing. It looked rather plain, and not too dissimilar to the majority of the buildings in Cherrygrove.

'Elm said that we ought to be able to recognize Mister Pokémon's house on sight, yet this one looks to be on the bland side, at least externally… May we well investigate, anyways. Just in case,' she figured, knocking on the door thrice over at a reasonable volume after making this decision.

Three seconds passed before she heard the creaks of refined wood being stepped on, and another three seconds transpired before the door opened, revealing a somewhat old-looking man. He, like the building he evidently inhabited, was overall plain and non-descript, aside from his odd, seemingly perpetual squint.

After a few moments of taking her appearance, he said to her, "Hello there, whoever your are! I assume you came knocking because you thought that this was Mister Pokémon's house?"

"… Not exactly. Someone told me that I would know what house was Mister Pokémon's upon seeing it, and when I saw how bland your house was – no offense – I decided to check, just in case Elm was wrong or if he were visiting here. You almost never know with these kinds of matters, you see…"

The man simply nodded before responding in turn, "Oh, I understand, especially since I tend to get a few of you new Trainers knocking at my door every week."

He did not appear aggravated by this fact – he appeared to appreciate the humor he found in their ignorance, if anything.

"Well, apologies for the would-be intrusion and the waste of your time and energy. I suppose I'll be leaving, if you will let me…"

"Ah, actually, would you be so kind as to wait here for a moment? I'll be right back out in a jiffy!"

The slightly grizzled man closed the door behind him, and upon listening a bit more closely than she usually did, she heard the sounds of shifting contents. Whether they were on shelves or grounded containers, she had no idea. Her sense of hearing wasn't that finely tuned!

'Not that this train of thought really matters all that much. Again.'

After approximately a minute of waiting, the man re-emerged from his humble abode, and handed a moderately sized box to her. It was orange on the bottom and white on the top, and reminded Marza of those ice-filled cooler boxes for drinks to some extent. A brief glance inside revealed four layers of plastic – the top two held sixteen small slots each, and the bottom two had eight large slots each.

"This is a special container for Apricorns and most types of Berries. The former can be made into Poké Balls if you take 'em to the right person, and the latter can be eaten by your Pokémon for a wide variety of effects. Most plants that grow those are okay to grab these from, so if you see one, feel free to do so!"

'Apricorns? And not apricots? Also…'

Marza awkwardly stuttered out aloud, "Um… Might I ask why you are giving this to me for seemingly no reason?"

The man genuinely smiled.

"My unnecessary stockpile of them aside? Because you are one of the surprisingly few kids these days who have the patience and courtesy to apologize for intruding! Really, it is quite startling how little of those two traits children have when they realize they've made a mistake…"

Marza couldn't help but giggle at this reality, saying after she calmed down, "What a truth that is! Either way, though, I think we've got to get going. Thanks for the gift!"

"Safe travels, kid-o!"

They waved to each other as the distance between them began to lengthen, grins on their respective faces as they bid farewell and continued on with their lives…