As we approached, Ez was still jumping for joy with Elektra. "Wow, does she ever run out of energy?" I quipped as Marc laughed.
"Not really, she's always been the energetic one. She could probably outrun me if she tried, but she'd get bored half way and stop more than likely."
Ez looked over and saw us, and immediately bolted towards me. Sienna just had enough time to jump off my shoulder before Ez nearly tackled me to the ground in a big hug. "Thank you so much Alex! I don't know if I could have done that without you." I took a moment to regain my footing, but returned the hug as well, just enjoying it.
"Any time Ez, you did great out there. It was tricky, but we worked together and made it through."
She pulled back after a moment, looking into my eyes with complete gratitude and smiled. Elektra ran up and barked, breaking the two of us up. "Oh right, I'm sorry Elektra" Ez said as she took off her bag and grabbed a potion. She took a moment to heal up the Yamper, then took out the ball holding the Sentret. "Should I let the new addition to the team out now?" She asked us.
"Maybe we should wait until later." I said. "We could get them acquainted with the team when we set up camp for the night. Then we can all bond over a good meal.
"I think that's a good idea" said Marc. "After that battle, it may be a bit nervous so good to give it some time to calm down. I would use a potion to heal it up in the ball though."
"Yeah, that's a good idea" Ez said. She took another potion and tapped it against the front of the pokeball, the ball releasing a beam of red light that turned the potion to light, and disappeared into the ball.
"Woah" I said surprised. "I didn't know you could do that."
"Yeah," Marc said. "It's a new feature that only was added in the last year or so. It's good for newly caught Pokémon you may not be ready to send out or in situations you may not want to have another Pokémon out.
"Huh, that makes a lot of sense. I guess I never thought of that as an idea." Being here was really making me think of things I never had considered before, then again the rules and laws in this area were a bit different. "Well, we should continue to press on. We can see what progress we can make before it starts to get dark."
We continued to travel, just making small talk amongst ourselves for another few hours. As the sun began to dip, we decided to stop and make camp. A small cluster of trees right off the main path looked to be an ideal spot. Marc and I set up the tents while Ez offered to cook. Within about 20 minutes, the tents were set, a good fire was going, and dinner was nearly ready.
"Ok guys, food should be ready to go" Ez said enthusiastically. She looked concerned for a moment before speaking again. "Think we should let the Sentret out already?"
"I think so" said Marc. "It will be a good opportunity to let them get to know the team and their new trainer." I nodded in agreement, making Ez smile.
We all took spots to sit, along with our pokemon that had been out all day. Ez took the pokeball from her belt and tossed it out. The ball opened in a brilliant flash of light and the Sentret materialized from it. The sight and sound of it happening were something I could not get over. The Sentret opened its eyes and looked around, eyeing all of us. Ez walked over slowly and knelt down to it, speaking softly. "Hey, my name is Esmerelda. I want to be your trainer, so we can travel together and become stronger. I hope you'll have me."
The Sentret seemed defensive at first, but leaned forward as she knelt. It smiled and moved towards her, caught off guard as she picked it up in a big hug.
"Don't worry, you will get used to that. She does it all the time" I yelled out. She put it down a moment later and motioned for him to come over and join us. He did, but looked a bit nervous around Elektra.
"It's ok, Elektra won't hurt you. You guys are a team now." Ez said. Elektra walked over to Sentret and licked him, making them both laugh.
We all laughed as our team welcomed the new member. We all ate and relaxed, just enjoying each other's company. We chatted, about nothing in particular. Marc and Ez told some stories of things we had done in school, I listened intently trying to absorb what I could. Since I had a feeling we would be around each other a lot in the near future, I felt it was only the right thing to do. As the sun set, we all turned in for the night. Tomorrow, we set out to finish our trek to Oldale Town.
Author's Notes:
Thank you so much for the continued support. Even though I haven't updated in a while, more people are favoriting the story. Thank you all. I am going to try to get back into writing more now as a recent role play in a discord server is reigniting my enjoyment in writing. Thanks again and hope to see you all soon