After Jess finished shopping in the Pokémart, we went on to the northern exit of Cherrygrove City.
"Alright you two let's get going."
Jess always let me and Travis stay outside our Pokéballs. She figured out that I didn't like it in there and I think she also noticed that I got along with Travis very well so she let us both have our talk.
On our way we encountered some wild Pokémon. Jess let us take turns in fighting them, so we could always rest a little and watch the other one fight.
Whenever one of us got some more damage, she gave us Oran Berries or Potions to heal our wounds. She did quite a good job with the training.
It wasn't for long until we encountered the first trainer.
He introduced himself as Joey and he looked slightly younger than Jess.
They both took position.
Jess looked down to both of us. "Nick that's your battle."
I looked at her and smiled. Ok let's do this. Ignoring the fact that she couldn't understand me.
Joey grabbed his only Pokéball. "Alright Rattata, it's time to shine."
In a flashy light a Rattata appeared before me.
That reminded me of my first battle. But this time was different. I had more experience, and my opponent wasn't a wild Pokémon this time.
"Nick use Focus Energy!" - "Rattata use Quick Attack!"
I took a deep breath and concentrated my energy, while the Rattata charged full speed ahead in my direction. I took the hit without struggling. The Rattata was stronger that wild ones. But if that was all he had to offer this would be an easy battle.
"Alright Nick, now Watergun!" - "Another Quick Attack Rattata!"
Now fully concentrated under the effect of my focus energy move, I let the Rattata do its Quick Attack and waited for the right moment to strike. The attack hit me again without much impact. Then I used my chance and while the Rattata charged back to gain some distance between us, I charged up my energy and fired a Watergun right at the Rattata. It was a critical hit, and the Rattata fainted in instant.
"Wow your Pokémon is soo strong, it even beat my Rattata, and that's not just any Rattata you know, he's something special, He's a top percentage Rattata! By the way, I've never seen a Pokémon like that around here. Where did you get that?"
"I got him as a Poké-egg, from a red-haired boy. It was kinda weird, he seemed to be in a hurry. He just gave the egg to me and told me to carefully watch over it, before he ran away." That was about 3 days ago, just after I started my journey from New Bark town. I wonder if he's alright."
'Wait that's right, I never even questioned how she got to my egg before I hatched...a red haired guy? And he seemed to be in a hurry? What's going on here? I wonder if he knows something about me?'
"Oh well, he sure is. Hey, wanna exchange phone numbers? We could talk about Pokémon some more."
"Sure why not?" Jess answered, and they both took out their Pokécoms.
The rest of the day we encountered some more wild Pokémon and other trainers. Travis and I still took turns in fighting. Travis also didn't have any problems to fight his opponents. We even had a double battle against a trainer with a Caterpie and a Weedle. Travis used his Smokescreen attack to blind our enemies so I could easily use Focus Energy. His Ember- and my Watergun-attack then finished them off. We hugged each other after that battle (at least as far as we could do with our short arms).
In the evening we set our camp near the road. next to some berry trees. After dinner we went to sleep, Travis crawled into Jess' sleeping bag. I decided to sleep on the spleeping bag, as I didn't want my fur to heat up like last night. My fur kept me warm enough to not feel cold.