"Yep. There's the wreck."
They were standing in the middle of the road. On either side of Route 2 was the Searrow Forest Nature Preserve. Behind them was the short stretch of road that led to Searrow. And ahead of them was the two wrecked trucks and their cargo littered around the broken and torn road.
Scarlet couldn't help but shake her head in exasperation as she looked at the damaged road ahead. A road work crew was repairing the road, while others were working on clearing the wreckage and lumber strewn about the road. They were accompanied by a few Pokémon, the only ones Moira recognized being Machoke and Gurdurr, though there was another one that she didn't remember seeing in Galar. She was informed later that the floating steel Pokémon helping to move the car wreckage was a Magneton.
"There should be a trail somewhere around here… aha! There it is." Scarlet pointed a narrow brown dirt path that branched off from the main road that twisted and turned until it disappeared into the foliage.
The three stepped onto the trail and began making their way into the ever-darkening woods. Ralts, now fully recovered, was now back in Oliver's backpack, but was a little uneasy by the shadows cast by the trees, despite Joltik's best efforts to comfort her. Cassandra wasn't as nervous. On the contrary, she was soaking in the beauty of nature as she hadn't gotten out much.
"I gotta say, this isn't how I envisioned my career starting," Oliver commented. "My first full day as a trainer and we have to take a detour through the forest. Is this an omen? I feel like it's an omen."
"Dinnae worry, Oliver. Campin' is actually really f***in' fun."
"Oh, you camp often?"
"Excuse me, you three?" They turned to face the new voice. It was a park ranger. He was in his late 20s with long brown hair wearing a green hat and brown vest over a grey shirt and dark green pants, with two Pokéballs holstered on his belt. "Sorry to interrupt you, but I just have to ask a couple questions. You're taking the trail to bypass Route 2?"
"That's correct, yes," Scarlet responded.
"Do you plan on camping overnight?"
"Yes."
"All right. Were you planning on catching any Pokémon? Because I'm gonna need to see a valid trainer license from all of you or I can't allow you to do so."
Oliver and Moira both pulled out their trainer cards, and to their surprise, Scarlet also produced one, though the picture on her card was very clearly out of date, showing a Scarlet that was about Oliver's age.
"Thanks for cooperating. Sorry for the questions, I'm required by law to check." He pointed down the trail. "Take the second branching path on your left, then just follow the trail up to a clearing we've set up for camping. From there just follow the trail north and it'll exit onto the north side of Route 2."
"Thank you, sir," Scarlet replied.
"Anytime." The ranger tipped his hat and left.
The three continued down the trail, but a couple minutes later Oliver decided to break the ice.
"So Scarlet… I didn't know you were a trainer."
"Well yeah, I WAS a trainer," she said, a little too sharply. "I keep renewing it for convenience, in case I need Absol for anything. But I'm not taking part in any competitions anytime soon."
Oliver winced at her curt tone of voice. "Geez, sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
Scarlet seemed to realize how she came across, and she sighed. "I'm sorry for snapping at you. It's just a chapter of my life I'd rather forget."
Moira couldn't help but feel sympathy for the lab assistant. Oliver, meanwhile, mulled this over in his head.
I've known her for years and I never knew she was a trainer. Then again, there was that time four years ago she went on that trip for a couple months. And when she got back I didn't see her for a while…
His train of thoughts was interrupted when Moira shouted. "Hey, a think that's a Pokémon up ahead!"
Oliver looked where Moira was pointing and sure enough, there was a short, rounded, yellow-and-green Pokémon that was just alerted to their presence.
"Hey, a Shroomish! Good eye, I didn't even notice it!"
The Shroomish took off down the road as fast as its stubby little legs would take it. Moira, however, chased after it, taking out Nidoran's Pokéball.
"Poison beats Grass, right? Let's see how Nidoran does!"
She threw the ball and out popped Nidoran, which prompted Shroomish to stop fleeing and hold its ground.
"Careful Moira," Oliver pointed out. "Shroomish releases spores on contact that can put a Pokémon to sleep."
"Thanks fer the heads up!" Moira grinned. "Nidoran, use Poison Sting!"
Nidoran launched a couple spines out of its body that struck Shroomish dead-on, causing it to stagger, though the poison did not seem to take effect. The mushroom Pokémon responded by launching a couple seeds that sprouted plants that rooted Nidoran to the ground.
"Oof, that looks like Leech Seed. Better take it down quick, or his energy will be drained," Oliver observed.
Moira grimaced. "All right, try another Poison Sting!" Nidoran launched more spines, which connected with Shroomish again, as it wasn't the fastest. This time, Shroomish began to wobble around with a nauseous expression. This time, the poison had took hold.
Shroomish began to rear back. "Look out," Oliver warned. "Looks like it's gonna use Headbutt. If it hits Nidoran, the spores might put him to sleep. Maybe you could try catching it right now!"
She nodded, then took out a Pokéball and wound up. "Let's hope this works! I only hit the thing twice!" She threw the ball and it connected with Shroomish right before it could ram into Nidoran, pulling it inside and slamming shut. It landed, and shook a few times before it clicked shut.
Almost immediately, the roots tying Nidoran down disappeared. Moira picked it up and pocketed the ball. "Great work, Nidoran! A knew ye could do it!" The Poison-type lit up at the encouragement and let out a cute little "Raaan!" before Moira recalled him.
"I'll bring it out when we set up camp," she told the other two. When I battled Oliver, Nidoran got knocked out right at the start. I think that was because I didn't try to bond with him and didn't bring it out again until the battle, but Oliver introduced himself to his Tryote right after catching it.
Then she turned to Oliver. "Ye really know yer stuff when it comes to moves, don't ye?"
Oliver scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I, it's nothing, I just had a lot of free time on my hands when I was younger, and I didn't have many friends so I spent a lot of time looking up stuff about moves and-"
"Let's hurry up and get to the campground," Scarlet interrupted. "The sun's starting to go down."
Oliver and Moira were a little startled. They both looked up. Indeed, the sky was starting to turn orange. They agreed, they oughta hurry before it got dark and they got stranded out here.
Thankfully they made it to the campsite while there was still light. Moira and Oliver both had a tent, and they all had the unspoken agreement that Moira and Scarlet would share Moira's tent. Oliver sat down and began rummaging through his bag, letting Ralts out to stretch her legs.
"So, what are ye having for dinner?" Moira asked.
Oliver shrugged. "I mean, I'm probably gonna just boil some water and make some instant noodles. I brought a few cups of-" He was cut off by hysterical laughing from Moira, the loudness causing Ralts and Joltik (who were gathering kindling for the campfire) to jump.
"Ye- ye- ye really think cup noodles are a meal?! Pffthahaha…" Oliver couldn't help but withdraw a bit.
Moira noticed Oliver's hurt expression and immediately dialed it back. "H-hey, look, why don't you just put those back and I'll show you how to make REAL food."
She set her bag on the ground and started rummaging through it.
Scarlet eyed her curiously. "What are you planning on making?"
Moira beamed as she proudly proclaimed, "Nothin' but genuine Galarian curry!" She slammed down a big ol' cooking pot over the firepit, startling Oliver's two Pokémon who were throwing on the last of the kindling. Where she got the pot from was anyone's guess, her bag was definitely not big enough to hold it. She pulled some ingredients from her bag. "Alright, now I just need some berries."
Oliver stood up. "All right. What kind?"
"Cheri berries preferable, though if ye find any Oran berries those'll be helpful."
"Sounds easy enough. Those are pretty common" Oliver turned to his two Pokémon. "Come on you guys, let's go find some!" And with that, Oliver, Ralts, and Joltik disappeared into the foliage and began searching.
Once they disappeared, Moira walked over to Scarlet. "Now that they're gone, can I ask you something?"
Scarlet shrugged. "Shoot."
"Do you think I'm too… I dunno… loud? Not sure what the right word is. Whenever I get worked up and start yelling Oliver just kinda looks like a kicked Growlithe, and back at the Pokémon Center, when I got upset over the road being closed everybody was glaring at me."
"Why don't you ask Oliver?"
"Because he'll just lie to keep me from feeling bad."
Yeah, I guess that's true, Scarlet thought. "Well, if you want my honest opinion, then… yeah, you seem to be a bit… overemotional at times."
Moira hung her head.
"But to be honest, Oliver's just the same way." Scarlet began absentmindedly petting Cassandra as Moira sat down and listened to what she had to say. "The difference is while you lash out, Oliver tends to withdraw. He's always been sensitive. That's not always a bad thing, though."
"The story of how he got Ralts. I remember."
"But at the same time, he never wants to stand up for himself. You saw the way he just rolled over and let Amber walk all over him." Moira nodded. She still owed Amber a good decking. "Maybe you can go a bit overboard, but Oliver could stand to learn a thing or two from you."
Moira said nothing in response. She, Scarlet, and Cassandra sat there looking at the fire.
And none of them managed to detect the fourth presence in the camp.
"We're baaack!" Oliver's voice rang out as he and his Pokémon emerged from the woods carrying a handful of red and blue berries. Joltik only carried a couple Oran berries on his back and Ralts was levitating a handful of her own.
"Hey, welcome back!" Moira waved. "Let's see what ye got…"
She looked over their findings. Then, she nodded. "Aye, these'll do wonderfully." She began walking back to her bag. "Let's just add these to the ingredients, and…" she paused as she looked through her belongings. "...All my ingredients are gone."
Oliver's eyes widened. "Oh dang… I'm sorry."
Moira snapped her fingers, her face radiating anger. "Some wild Pokémon must've wandered into camp and stolen it! And I was really looking forward to making curry fer you guys..."
"I'm sure you'll get another chance," Oliver said, trying to calm her down. "I mean, we still have food so it's not a big deal."
"If ye can even call those cheap instant noodles of yers 'food,'" Moira responded bitterly.
Oliver looked around to see if the thief was still around. He happened to notice a small plastic bag full of pieces of potato. Nearby were a set of tiny footprints.
"...whoever or whatever took the food, they left a trail. They can't be that far away yet!" With that Oliver took out Tryote's Pokéball and sent him out.
The Ground-type looked up at Oliver with curiosity. "Tryote, something, maybe a Wild Pokémon, took Moira's food. Can you help us track it down?" The big-eared Pokémon nodded. It stuck by Oliver as he walked towards where the tracks started.
"Hey, Oliver, it's all right, ye don't have to chase after it for me, it's probably long gone," Moira said.
"I know that, but I was honestly really looking forward to seeing what you cooked, so I'm gonna give it a shot regardless."
At that point, Joltik followed after Oliver. When he saw his trusty Bug/Electric-type had joined him, he turned towards Ralts, who was sitting by the fire chatting it up with Cassandra. Deciding not to interrupt, he took his two Pokémon and followed the trail.
Oliver shone his flashlight onto the ground as he and his Pokémon followed after the mystery thief. The tracks were tiny and hard to spot among the plants on the ground, but Tryote had a keener eye for this sort of thing, so Oliver was mainly shining the light for Tryote to see.
After about a minute, Tryote stopped. He raised his nose into the air and sniffed.
"You smell something?"
Without warning Tryote darted towards the smell. He ran ahead of Oliver, who couldn't keep up with him.
Crap! I'm gonna lose him!
"Joltik, go after him and signal me when he stops!" The spider leapt onto Tryote's back and rode on top as Oliver slowed to a halt, catching his breath.
After waiting for a bit, Oliver saw a flash of electricity not too far off and made his way towards it.
He eventually stepped into a clearing where he finally saw just what was going on.
In the clearing, standing atop a pile of Moira's bags of ingredients, was a Karrablast. The blue, pincer-headed Bug-type was tied up with silk that Joltik had no doubt fired, while Tryote was nursing some injuries he had taken from Karrablast. Joltik, for his part, was standing proudly next to Karrablast like a hunter posing for a picture with his latest trophy.
Oliver gave a low whistle. "Nice work, you two! You caught the thief, found Moira's ingredients, and I think I found myself my next catch."
Just then, Karrablast broke free of the silk, catching Oliver off-guard. Before he could do anything, Karrablast leapt towards Tryote and slashed at it twice in a cross shape ( It knows X-Scissor?! ), sending the already injured canine spiraling into unconsciousness.
It turned towards Joltik, who avoided the same fate on account of his speed and small size.
"Joltik, use Electroweb!" He complied, firing the webbing at Karrablast, who simply sliced right through it.
This isn't looking good… It may overpower Joltik at this rate, and I don't want to be near this thing without any Pokémon!
Karrablast glared daggers at the electric spider and jumped into the air and landed its pincers directly onto Joltik in a maneuver Oliver recognized as Peck.
Before it could do any further damage, however, a burst of pinkish energy flew in out of nowhere and knocked Karrablast away.
Oliver turned in the direction it came from and saw Ralts, riding majestically on Cassandra like a knight in shining armor. Karrablast got up and tried to retaliate, but Ralts simply used Hypnosis and the bug was knocked out cold.
Not wanting to waste his chance, Oliver threw a Pokéball at the sleeping bug. It opened in a flash of light and pulled Karrablast inside.
Oliver stared at the ball as it began to shake. His fingers were crossed as he hoped the capture stuck. That thing had taken down Tryote, and had very nearly taken down Joltik. This thing was strong for an unevolved Bug Pokémon.
It stayed on the ground, closed, rattling around as Karrablast had woken up and tried to break free.
And finally...
* click *
Oliver sighed in relief. "Okay, I was NOT expecting some random bug Pokémon to be so strong." He turned to Ralts and Cassandra. "Thanks for the assist, guys."
Ralts gave him a thumbs-up and Cassandra simply nodded, making a small mewing sound.
Oliver pocketed the Pokéball and turned to the pile that Karrablast had hoarded. "Let's get this stuff back to camp."
"So they showed up at the last second, all heroic-like? Wish I could've seen it," Moira said as she started throwing ingredients in the cooking pot.
Oliver and Moira had both let their Pokémon out to enjoy Moira's curry. Oliver initially wanted Karrablast to join in but it lashed out when Oliver tried to introduce himself, so they thought it best to keep it contained for now. Scarlet had a couple Revives on hand to help Tryote recover.
"Almost ready. Ye got the berries?"
"Right here," Oliver responded, holding up a mixture of red Cheri and blue Oran berries, not having paid much attention to what else Moira was putting into the pot. He dumped them in.
"Ye've never made curry before, have ye?"
"Um… no."
Moira smiled. "Why don't I show ye how to do it?"
Oliver was taken aback, but after thinking it over for a moment, nodded. "Sure, I'll give it a shot."
"Alright. Here, take this," she said, handing Oliver a blue fan.
"Huh?"
"Ye gotta fan the flames the old-fashioned way," Moira explained. "It's tradition."
"I-I've never really done this sort of thing before. I don't want to screw it up…"
"Oh, come off it, ye'll do fine, it's easy!"
"TONE IT THE F*** DOWN, WILL YE?! IT'S BURNING!"
Oliver was fanning the flames at an inhuman rate, causing the fire below the pot to blow up to a size that even a Charizard would be impressed by. Moira was waving her arms frantically trying to get Oliver to stop.
"S-Sorry! I got kinda carried away!"
He stopped fanning the flames and Moira nervously watched the fire die down, before sighing in relief. "Okay, that was scary…" She then took out a big wooden spoon, then handed it to Oliver. "Now get stirrin'!"
"O-okay!" He nervously lowered his spoon into the pot.
"Now just be sure not to go overboard with the stirrin' or else ye might-"
SLOSH SLOSH SLOSH SLOSH
Moira found herself splashed by the cooking curry as Oliver began furiously stirring. Sighing in defeat, Moira slowly leaned over and took the spoon from Oliver's hand.
"Maybe… maybe I should take it from here."
Oliver wholeheartedly agreed.
In the end, Moira managed to salvage it. Despite the spillage that occurred and the mishap with the fire, Moira was able to produce some delicious-looking curry. You know how pictures of food are always faked so they look better than the real thing? Moira somehow managed to make her real curry look like that.
She stuck the curry onto some paper plates and passed them around to Oliver, Scarlet, and the Pokémon (sans Karrablast, who was still in time-out). Oliver was worried he might've screwed it up but Moira took a big bite of her own plate and chewed it with a big, satisfied grin.
Relieved that it apparently turned out fine despite his "help," Oliver took a bite of the curry.
And promptly began breathing fire.
SPICY! WHY IS SO SPICY!?
He looked down at Ralts, but she would be no help, for she was also breathing fire.
As was Joltik.
And Scarlet.
And Cassandra.
Really, everyone who took a bite of the impossibly spicy curry was now breathing fire except for Moira, Sobble, and Wooloo, who made this sort of curry all the time and were used to it by now. And those three were happily chowing down on their plates, not caring about (or even noticing) the burning tastebuds of their traveling companions.
(The group would later admit the curry was delicious nonetheless.)
When planning this story I always pictured Ralts being Oliver's main Pokémon, but more and more it's looking like Joltik is taking that position.
