I finished this chapter back on Friday, and am posting this early in the morning on Sunday. At this time, I have Chapter 8 completed as well. This is where the action truly starts.

As always, feel free to join us at the PercentVerse Discord, and have a great day. Enjoy the chapter!

BRADLEY CLARION, 18

I walked along the ridge for the next ten minutes, simply taking in the views, the crisp air of the summer morning, and the breeze against my fur. There was a pretty stark contrast between my external surroundings, so calm and peaceful, and my internal dialogue, which was not calm or peaceful in the least.

I'm a pretty fast walker, owing to the fact that in my human form, I have pretty long legs. As a Braixen, I wasn't nearly as tall, but my legs could still carry me fairly quickly.

Good thing I've adjusted to my new body now. Otherwise I'd be in a world of hurt, because this preserve's pretty big!

After about ten minutes, I stopped to take a drink of water from my canteen before remembering that there was no water. I had to find it for myself. Fortunately, I wasn't particularly thirsty yet, but I recalled that it was important to hydrate before you felt the need to drink.

From the air, water had seemed abundant, with streams meandering through the mountain meadows, as well as several lakes. However, now that I was actually on the ground, reality set in, and I knew that it would be a long walk.

Water is my first priority. Food can wait a little longer. That was yet another piece of knowledge I'd read in books, but there's a difference between being "book smart" and "street smart", or, in this case, "wilderness smart", since there weren't any streets as far as the eye could see.

All I have in here is a first aid kit, a water kit, if you will, and fire in the form of flint. I'm really roughing it, aren't I?

From the ridge I currently found myself on, I could see a number of fields and forests, with a narrow, raging river carving its way through the massive landscape. I currently stood what must have been several hundred vertical feet above the river.

Here we go. There's water, and all I have to do is get there.

During my last few days in the manor, I'd made a mental note to avoid the thick woods as much as I could, reason being that I wanted to be able to see clearly in all directions to the greatest degree possible. Sadly, that didn't appear possible; the river was lined with dense pine trees on both sides.

I took a deep breath and steeled myself for the walk ahead.

As it turned out, I had underestimated the distance between the ridge and the river. I had thought that it would take me an hour or less to get there.

While I didn't have a watch on me, I was fairly certain that I'd already crossed the one-hour mark when I was only about halfway to the river's edge. There was nothing wrong with this, of course, except that I was quickly becoming thirstier and thirstier.

That's not to say that I was miserable. On the contrary, without the distraction of electronics that seem to pervade our lives these days, I paid attention to the chirping of every Krickitot, watched every Beedrill pollinate the wildflowers, and marveled in the beauty of every Butterfree I passed by.

At one point, I heard a buzzing noise coming from above me. Turning to face the sky, I saw that there was a Beedrill hive high up in a tree, swaying gently in the wind.

Needless to say, I gave that tree a wide berth. The last thing I wanted was for the bees' nest to come crashing down right next to me, with them thinking that I was the one who disturbed it. I'd had my fair share of stings throughout my life, and I didn't want to add any more to the list.

After what must have been well over an hour, I entered another thicket of trees, this one very dense indeed. The trees were only a couple feet apart, meaning that I'd have to squeeze through in order to avoid getting scratched by the branches.

In spite of the forest's density, however, I could see the river on the other side. I was almost there. I hadn't allowed myself any time to rest, but I decided right then and there that I would rest once I reached the river. I figured that I'd earned it.

Of course, I have to earn everything for myself out here. Even rest.

Despite having to be careful not to be scraped up, I was relieved to be underneath a canopy of pine leaves. I hadn't allowed myself to admit it, but I'd been starting to feel a little warm thanks to my fur coat and the heat of the day. Admittedly, it wasn't that hot up here in the mountains, but it was still summer.

I reached the other side of the forest and found the river. It was a little wider than it had appeared from the ridge; if I had to guess, it was perhaps thirty yards or so. As rivers go, it wasn't terribly far across, but trying to swim to the other side appeared very dangerous.

The water, while it didn't seem to be very deep, moved very quickly over the rocks, creating white water rapids. Rafting down this river, if that were even allowed, would be almost as perilous as swimming across it.

That said, the river's glacial blue color was quite something to behold. The water was cold, but it wasn't too clear; perhaps it was full of glacial silt.

Yes, this is a glacier-fed river. I wonder if it's from the Koru Glacier; that would be quite something, to have seen the glacier that this river is coming from.

The river was hemmed in on both sides by a narrow, rocky beach. The rocks were large enough that attempting to run down the beach would be likely to cause me to twist my ankle. It was important to be careful.

I also kind of wish I had shoes...but do they make any shoes for Braixen? Or, indeed, for any species of Pokemon?

I'd never seen any wild Pokemon wearing shoes, so if I wanted to get in touch with my wild side, I should probably get used to not having them. At least, that was my line of thinking, and I became increasingly convinced that it was the correct one as I sat down on a large rock a couple feet from the river's edge.

Oh yeah, there's a reason I'm here.

It had been easy enough to forget amid all of the natural beauty, but admiring it wasn't the main reason I'd come to the river. I took out my canteen and scooped up some of the cold, rushing water, careful not to get any rocks into the canteen.

I was tempted to just gulp it down, but I resisted the urge to do so. The severe gastrointestinal distress that would be certain to follow would only cause further dehydration, not something I wanted at all.

Instead, I took out the bottle of iodine and added three drops. Half an hour of waiting...I suppose that's how long I'll rest.

As I was sitting there, I looked across the river at the other pine forest, and took a deep breath. It was a breathtaking feeling, being right in the middle of nature and hearing the rushing of the river.

Man. It's said sometimes that heaven is a place on Earth. Whether you believe in some sort of afterlife or not, this could definitely qualify as paradise.

Of course, sometimes you think something is going to be amazing, and then it turns out to be terrible once you try it. Even though the mountains surrounding my hometown of Mountain Sound were pretty, I had never desired to go camping, partly for that reason.

And now I'm surviving out in the woods for a week. Man, my parents are going to be so proud of me once they find out what I've been through.

While I waited for the thirty minutes to be up, I took a glance at the sky, seeing that the sun had climbed almost to high noon. It would soon be directly overhead, and it would probably feel good on my ears.

Now that I'm here...as long as I'm careful not to go in too deep, it won't do any harm to wade in, will it?

Over the next few minutes, I slowly warmed myself up to the idea. So long as I stayed close to the edge, I should be safe. At least, that's what I thought.

I'll run to the river and dive straight in.

No, that wouldn't be wise. Just a few steps, enough to feel the water on my feet. It was almost as though the thought above wasn't my own, and was the river speaking to me, trying to get me to potentially drown myself.

Don't think that way, Bradley. This river's a lot of things, but it isn't sentient. It's not trying to persuade you of anything.

Leaving my canteen on the rock, I took a tentative step into the water. Almost immediately, I winced.

This water was so cold that it practically hurt. Within seconds, I felt my feet starting to go numb, which should have been my cue to get out of the river immediately.

Instead, like the dumbass that I was, I waded further in until the water was a good two feet deep. I was now about five yards in, a sixth of the way across.

This is as far in as I'm going to go. I don't want to slip, or get hypothermia. I'll just stand here for a minute and appreciate everything.

A few seconds into my reverie, a current rose up. I didn't have enough time to react before I was swept off my feet.

My heart practically stopped, not only because of fear, but because the water was just that cold. I wasn't thinking clearly as the river carried me downstream for a few seconds, but I was able to react quickly enough to try and stand up.

I did just that, and felt my feet touch the bottom. However, the river was by now a good three feet deep, and I now understood how it was possible to drown in a pond with an average depth of six inches. It wasn't long before I fell down again and was swept away.

The river swept me right onto a large rock, and I landed painfully on my back some 100 yards downstream. I winced, but I knew I was very lucky that I hadn't been dragged underwater by the current.

I lay on the rock for a few seconds, trying to catch my breath; the wind had been completely knocked out of me. Fortunately, nothing seemed to be broken, so that was fortunate.

I was a fool! A complete and total fool! How on Earth did I think I could do that safely?

Luckily, the rock I'd been swept onto was on the edge of the river, so after I had caught my breath, I got to my feet and turned to my left. The time had now come to look for the spot that I'd been at previously before wading into the river.

As it turned out, this wasn't that hard. My orange survival pack stood out like a sore thumb amid the nondescript colors of the rocks, and it took no time at all to locate it.

After that, the rest of the wait was pretty uneventful. Every so often, I saw bird Pokemon flying overhead, and imagined what it might be like to be one of them.

Yeah, that'd be pretty awesome.

Something about a sudden near-death experience made everything seem more amazing. I suppose that this shouldn't be surprising; it made me appreciate life more, having almost lost it.

When I was reasonably confident that it had been half an hour since adding the iodine to the water, I opened my canteen and took a swig of my drink.

I recoiled at the taste. I'd never drank water before that had been purified in this manner, and I'd expected it to taste relatively normal. It didn't taste horrible, but it didn't exactly taste good either. But this was what I'd be doing for the next week, so I'd better get used to it.

Even with a flavor that was less than stellar, the water was working wonders on my dry mouth. I felt it move through my system and give me more energy, which would hopefully make it easier for me to find a good place to sleep.

If it's noon, then I have almost nine hours left until sunset. But those hours are going to go by fast, so I have to prepare for the night.

After sitting for a few minutes and sipping water, I decided to continue on my search for a viable place to set up camp. I hadn't been given a tent (not that I knew how to set up one), so I'd need to build or find my own shelter. And then there was another need, too, that I had almost forgotten about.

Food.

It wasn't as high a priority as shelter, but I knew that with the amount of energy I was exerting, and would continue to exert, I would get hungry quickly. Not only that, but when I'm very hungry, I can tend to not think very clearly. I get "hangry" easily, if you will, and being hangry isn't desirable when you're in the middle of nowhere.

Shelter first. Food later.

On paper, the thick forest next to the river's edge might have been a good place to take shelter. I wouldn't even need to make a roof, because the canopy of pine leaves and needles was so thick that it would catch most of the rain.

Looking to the sky, there wasn't a single cloud present. Therefore, it seemed highly unlikely that it would rain that night, so I might not need a canopy after all.

Still, how hard could it have been to give me a tent? Or even just a tarp to put over myself at night? That would come in handy in the event of rain!

I also considered looking for a cave to hide in. The nearest cliff was probably a mile or two away, and there was bound to be something that could be used as shelter. However, I was reluctant to use a cave due to the fact that I'm a little bit claustrophobic.

Desperate times call for desperate measures...but I'm not that desperate yet, am I?
After much deliberation, I decided to head for the cliff. Even if I didn't end up sleeping in a cave there, it was a good option to fall back on if need be. There was only one problem, though.

I need to cross the river to get to the cave.

Maybe there was a bridge somewhere. It was doubtful, but even if said bridge did exist, it might take a prohibitively long amount of time to reach it, cross the river, and still reach the cliff. Every hour mattered.

The last time I'd gone in the river, I'd been swept away and almost drowned. Hopefully this time went differently; I sent up another unconscious prayer to Arceus that I'd be all right.

After breathing deeply once more, I searched for the shortest point to cross the river. About half a mile downstream, I found one crossing that had plenty of rocks that could be used as stepping stones.

This is a little risky. If I slip off, I could die! But it's a risk I have to take.

I took my first step, and then another. Two down, roughly forty more to go.

As I slowly crossed the river, I felt much like a slackliner or tightrope walker at the circus. This was no less dangerous than such a pursuit; indeed, it might have been even more so.

For the last few hours, I'd been vaguely aware that I was being recorded. It had been easy enough to push it to the back of my mind when surrounded by such gorgeous glades, but as I was crossing the river, this concern was at the forefront once more.

To walk on figurative eggshells, while at the same time trying not to show fear, while at the same time keeping my balance...let's just say that it was some pretty stressful stuff.

By what almost qualified as divine intervention, I made it to the other side and then collapsed to the ground out of relief. I'd done it!

I only allowed myself a short break before I set out again, determined to keep up my pace as much as possible. If I stopped for too long, I might lose my motivation to keep going.

After about a mile, I came across a clearing not far from my target. The cliff rose prominently above the forest, a good five hundred feet up. It seemed even more magnificent up close; I was running out of adjectives to describe the scenery.

Not only that, but I'd found myself in a field of berries, growing in a rainbow of colors! I could hardly believe my luck and began gathering them almost immediately.

I recognized the Oran berries, which looked and tasted similarly to blueberries, except for being a great deal larger. There were also Sitrus berries (which looked rather like lemons and tasted almost as sour) and sweet pink Pecha berries, among many other types.

I had hit the jackpot. This was a gift indeed.

Of course, like many gifts, this one came with a price. A price that, had I been aware of it beforehand, I would have run. I would have run so far away.

"What are you doing there, Braixen!"

A voice bellowed out those words, loud enough that they made my heart stop for a few seconds. I dropped the berries I'd been picking and looked behind me to find the source of the voice.

It was a Breloom, yelling directly at me. A very angry Breloom at that, wearing a murderous expression on her face.

I had to think fast. My mind began racing, trying to think up an excuse for picking berries; this Breloom lady was probably harvesting them for herself and/or her family.

What would I say?. I'm just a hungry Braixen, alone in the wilderness. Please have mercy on me. That wouldn't work, though, because then I'd probably have to answer how I got into this situation in the first place, and I didn't want to deal with that.

Before I could figure out the right justification for my actions, Breloom yelled, "You trampled all over my beautiful berries! And you...are...going...to...pay!"

Breloom charged forward, directly at me, and I was paralyzed by fear. I should have gotten out of the way, but I was instead left stunned as she aimed a Headbutt directly at me.

When Breloom was only a few feet from me, a golden blur zoomed right past me and began making circles around my attacker. My survival instincts then kicked in, and I quickly backed away.

The golden blur kept on circling Breloom, and the Grass type kept turning her body so that she could see what the figure was. However, I was too much in shock to make it out.

After what must have been at least twenty circles, Breloom collapsed to the ground, presumably from dizziness. It was then that I realized just how much Lady Luck was smiling down on me that day.

The golden blur stopped moving, and then materialized into a more corporeal form. It was - he was - a small, cute Pokemon with golden fur and black organs that reached behind his head.

I was staring right at a golden Riolu, which was pretty incredible in and of itself. While Riolu, as well as their evolved form of Lucario, tended to live in mountainous areas like this one, the vast majority of them had blue fur. It would be a lifetime event for most people to see a gold Riolu.

"Good afternoon, Braixen" Riolu told me. "We should get moving, because my Quick Attack will only keep her stunned for so long. And you can thank me later".

Breloom wasn't the only one who was stunned, though. I could barely believe what had just happened. This golden Riolu had swooped right out of nowhere and saved my life!

I didn't protest; instead, I followed the golden Riolu out of the clearing and away from the field of berries. As we headed back into the trees, I took one last look at Breloom to find that she was beginning to stir.

I then looked down at my savior. Judging by his looks, he was probably 12 or 13 years old, significantly younger than me. But I was going to respect him, because he was being so good to me.

Dr. Vinaka never told me that getting help from others was prohibited. I have to assume that it's allowed...but then again, he's been deceptive before. All I know is that I'm earning those million bucks.

"What's your name?" Riolu asked me after we were a good distance away from the berry field. "I'm Tandang".

Tandang. What a weird name; sounds like it comes from another language. Oh well, I'm not going to judge!

I considered not telling him my name, just for the sake of privacy. I then remembered that he had saved me not five minutes before, and I didn't want to be rude to someone who had stopped me from paying the ultimate price.

"I'm Bradley. Bradley Clarion. I was wandering alone in the woods, on a hike...I guess I just got lost. And next thing you know, I'm trespassing on an angry Breloom's property".

"Ah, yeah, you don't want to upset the wild Pokemon who live here" Tandang replied. "They're just trying to survive here too, much like you and me".

"How old are you, by the way?" I asked Tandang, for it was the next question that occurred to me. "And if it's too personal, you don't have to tell me!"

The golden Riolu shook his head. "Nah, it's all right. I'm literally, like, thirteen. And you look...I dunno, eighteen?"

I nodded. "Like I said, I was on a hike and I just got lost. I was wondering if you could help me".

Tandang narrowed his eyes. "There are no hiking trails anywhere near here. You must've been really, really lost, then".

I chuckled; hopefully he believed my lie. I remembered that my father had once told me the following words: Show me how to lie. You're getting better all the time. He'd been referring to my excellent poker face.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess". I didn't elaborate, and Tandang didn't seem to want to press me on that any further. Instead, I simply followed him through the forest, towards the giant cliffs towering over the preserve.

Once we got out of the woods, literally, I saw the golden Riolu point upward at a hole in the rock that was roughly five feet in each direction, with a metal door inserted fifty feet above the ground. I had no idea what I was looking at, other than being aware that it was the first man-made thing I'd seen in hours.

"That's my home" Tandang told me. "And that's where you'll stay, at least for the night. Then we can see about getting you back where you live; whoever you were with has to be worried sick".

Almost immediately, it seemed as though there was a spider web, and I was caught in the middle. With every lie I told, I'd have to tell two more in order to shore up the first lie. And it would go on and on, and never end, much like the Hydra monster from Greek mythology.

On the other hand, Tandang was offering me shelter and (presumably) food. This was incredibly tempting; so tempting, in fact, I didn't see how I could possibly resist it.

You're being recorded, I told myself. Don't look weak by caving into temptation.

But it wasn't weak to receive help when you needed it, was it? That was my thought process as I nodded and said, "Take me to your home, Tandang. Please".

The golden Riolu led me to a ladder that had been dug into the cliffside. This brought back memories of climbing a tree at summer camp; of course, back there we had safety gear to catch us in case of a fall, whereas here there was none that I could see.

"That looks dangerous," I told Tandang. "What if I fall?"

"I'll be right behind you", Tandang replied almost immediately. "I'll spot you, and catch you if you do fall".

I was tempted to point out just how impossible that sounded to me, but I didn't do it. Instead, I walked up to the ladder and began climbing it. Fortunately, I made it to the top without incident, and then moved over to the side to allow Tandang to climb onto the ledge.

The metal door looked completely impassable, and I wondered how we were going to get inside. Could this really be Tandang's home?

"Let me enter the code," the golden Riolu said.

I looked at the cliff wall and saw that there was indeed a keypad attached to it. I moved over and allowed Tandang to punch in a series of numbers. Based on where he'd put his fingers, I was pretty sure the code was 30330.

"There you have it. This is where I live, so make yourself at home".

I wasn't originally going to include the encounter with the river, but I decided that this chapter needed a little extra action, so it was added as I went along. Another thing worth noting is that this chapter's title comes from a Vance Joy song, so there's that.

I hope everyone is staying safe. Stay home if you can, wear a mask and distance if you must go out. But I'm sure you guys know that already.

Take care!