"That is you! Jules Miller!"
Julianne's face burned with a vengeance. I should have grabbed Xavier's hand and Teleported as far as we could go, she thought bitterly. What is Alexus doing? Is he following me?
"Meowth got your tongue, Miller?" The dark-haired Cinnabaran boy tugged back on the reins of his horse Pokémon, coming to a stop a few feet away. "What're you up to, sitting about like that?"
Julianne forced herself to sit straighter. She took comfort from the fact that Xavier was there - that she was not completely alone. "Just resting while my Ponyta... uh, scouts ahead," she replied.
"Not a rider, are you?"
Especially if my mount doesn't come back. "Not really," she admitted. "I just put in my first four hours. Maybe my last, too." Alexus winced sympathetically. "At least until I get some proper equipment," Julianne corrected herself.
"Barebacking?" Alexus laughed. He swung one leg over, sitting sidesaddle for a moment before sliding to the ground. "You fell off, didn't you!"
"I did not!" she retorted. "The Ponyta wanted to run, but I couldn't let it or I would fall off. So I said it could run a bit if it came right back..." Which it hadn't. Julianne felt tears stinging the corners of her eyes, and hoped desperately that they didn't become visible. Such a fool, such a fool you are, Julianne, she scolded herself.
"They're like that," Alexus agreed. He patted his Pokémon on the neck, giving it an affectionate smile. "Go on, Rapidash. You can go see what that colt's up to." The horse snorted. Rather than a smooth forehead, a sharp horn stood proudly before its forward-facing ears. Its coat was grayer than that of Julianne's Ponyta, as if it had recently rolled in a fireplace, and its mane and tail burned short. But when it broke into a brisk trot, the saddle and supplies did not seem to weigh it down in the least. It held its head high, its deep crimson eyes clear and focused on the path ahead.
"My Da evolved Rapidash when I was little," Alexus said, startling Julianne out of her musings. "She isn't sick at all, just getting older. No good for battle anymore, but a good mount. How's your Ponyta?"
Hadn't she just said she didn't know how to ride? How was she supposed to know how good he was? "Patient," she replied weakly.
"Ha! He's a young one, so that's a good trait in him." Alexus collapsed beside her. He smelled of sweat, both horse and human, but not overpoweringly so.
"W-" He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue. Julianne tried not to stutter again. "Why are you here, Alexus? On the mainland, I mean."
"Alex," he reminded her. "It's Uncle Gelain's fault, really."
Gelain? She didn't remember the innkeeper mentioning a brother named- don't be stupid, Julianne, she scolded herself. Gelasia would have been named for her father, same as any girl is. "The innkeeper? What did he do?"
"That old bum of an apothecary took a second apprentice, some twit son of his niece." Alexus turned his head to spit into the grass. His brow had drawn down, shadowing his amber eyes to a brooding brown. "Was probably goin' to cut me loose, so I cut out before he could get me first. When he heard it, Uncle Gelain sat me down and put two gold rounds in front of me.
"'Alex,' he tells me, 'I've 'bout had all I c'n stand o' you about here. Y'r not goin' t' be any 'pothe'cary, y'r not goin' t' be any fishermen neither. There's one thing you do, and it's 'bout time you started on it.'"
Alex sighed slowly, leaning back on his elbows. His eyes studied the toggles of his doublet. "I'm no grand trainer, mind you," he said. "Took me all my training years to catch what I did."
"Gelasia was very happy to list them." Julianne smiled. "It sounds as if you did very well."
"Bah." Alex shrugged, momentarily sinking between his shoulders. "Real trainers are supposed to catch what they can, raise them to their best, breed what they have if they think a brood will be stronger than the parents. I couldn't keep more then one of each. Never caught myself a Ponyta; couldn't have afforded another horse about. Feeding the rest was trial enough!"
"Gelasia said you had a Ponyta," Julianne said.
"Must've confused Rapidash for one. She's none too bright on Pokémon. Most girls are that way - can't train 'em so they don't bother learning about 'em."
Julianne chose not to take offense at that remark. She knew she was pretty clueless about Pokémon, too, at least compared to an actual trainer, like Alex. "There's something to be said about just raising one of everything," Julianne protested. "You become more familiar with it, so you can teach them to overcome their weaknesses instead of having to switch Pokémon. If you put more effort into the one, it would rise to a higher level than if you were trying to train a bunch of them at once."
"There's that," Alex allowed. "But if you catch a real low-level one, that's the end-all of it. It takes years to train it to fight."
"What's wrong with that? How long have you been training?"
"Six years, but-"
Julianne's voice broke. "Six? You're sixteen?" He must be. His hair is shorn and loose. Of all men, only bachelors wore their hair untied, a symbol of their freedom to marry. It was the same for women and maidens. Julianne had worn her hair loose for almost three years, since her eleventh birthday, though only uncivilized people had their daughters marry before their thirteenth year. He must have had his hair shorn short on his birthday, when he reached marriageable age. That's what Julius did. Julianne's bound hair marked her as too young for such considerations, which was just fine for her. She wouldn't pass for a bachelor-age boy even if she wanted to - which she most certainly did not! But Alex didn't pass easily for one, either. It's because he's so thin and gangly. He's still a gawky boy, just an older one than he looks. "But what?" she recovered.
Alex sighed. "But nothin'. Rapidash is back with your colt."
So it was. The older, evolved horse towered over the Ponyta; Julianne's Pokémon only came to the shoulder of Alex's. It must have been even more beautiful when its mane and tail were full, Julianne thought. Are Rapidash white like Ponyta, or do they turn that gray color? She dared not ask, and reveal her ignorance. She was supposed to be as much a Pokémon trainer as Alex was. Being younger didn't matter... or that she'd never seen a Rapidash up close before. Yes it does, Julianne! Rapidash aren't native to the mainland. You wouldn't have been training as long as he has, so you might easily have missed seeing one until now. "Are all Rapidash gray?"
"Nah. That's just 'cause mine's old."
Alex didn't sound the least bit condescending. Julianne was relieved. "Oh." She watched as the older horse nuzzled the younger. It made her smile. "Where do you plan to go, Alex?"
"I don't know," he replied. "I'll be camping out, mostly. Living like a tramp, that's what trainers do."
"Living outside," she said, her eyes settling on the bedroll attached to Rapidash's saddle. "Aren't you afraid?"
"What? Afraid? You call yourself a trainer!" Alex laughed.
No, Julianne thought. She never had. Hadn't she pointed that out to him already?
"What trainer can afford to sleep in hostels every night?" Alex asked. "I camped a week at a time back home. When I was eleven I spent all of summer out by the volcanoes. I slept during the day, to avoid feeling the real heat."
"Have you ever been attacked by wild Pokémon while you slept?"
"Oh, sure. But my Pokémon sit watch for me. On Cinnabar, I'd have my water types sit out, since most of the wild ones there are ground or fire. Here I'll likely switch more, since there's more types around. But they'd wake me if there was trouble coming."
"Oh." An excellent strategy. She would have to point it out to Avius, that he might be around less to annoy her.
"You're from Fuchsia, right?"
Julianne felt her blood run cold at the question. "Near there," she answered quietly.
"And a miller's son." Julianne looked away from Alex, that he would not see how pale she had become. "You're heading home, aren't you? If I'm in the area, maybe I'll stop in. It's nice to know someone here."
Xavier was looking at her worriedly. How light could she look, with so many layers of sunburn stained into her skin? Maybe it was how she was gnawing her lip that gave away her discomfort, or Alex's words were enough to worry the Kadabra, too. "Perhaps." She tried to sound as uninviting as possible. Everything was fine until he brought that up!
He sat up a little straighter. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing..." ...except if you come to my father's house asking for a boy named Jules! If he found out it was me - we're not even supposed to talk like this unless he approves it first. And how close they were sitting! A fresh blush burned through Julianne's previously paled face. This is the second time we've been this close. He kept touching my shoulder and back while we were waiting our turn at the tournament. She would never mention that to her family. Just sharing a bench with men was a mark of a dishonorable woman. Oh goodness. I did that at the tournament, too! She hadn't even thought of it - just that sitting down might make her less noticeable. Being in that tournament was the worst thing I've ever done, she mourned. That's how I got the Ponyta - but I could have as easily bought one with the thieves' money. I didn't just break legal law, but every rule of etiquette, too! Julianne drew up her knees, resting her forehead on them. I have to go home before I become a complete loss. But if I go home, Alex might show up at any time!
"Do you want to go home?"
Yes! No! She wanted to. Needed to! She would be a girl again, dress in her own clothes and sleep on her own couch and regain the chance to grow up into a respected, honorable woman with a home and family of her own. But she didn't want to, not if it meant giving up Xavier and probably Runt and her colt- her Ponyta, too. Even Uli might be taken from her if Avius wanted him badly enough. She wanted to learn more, to try battling more, to train and raise her own Pokémon, to be familiar with them in every way, raise them to higher levels and make them evolve and-
"I don't know," she muttered bitterly. She raised her eyes, staring at the road running before them. "I mean... I don't," she told him, admitting it to herself for the first time. "But I have to."
Alex was sitting up now; he rested his hand on her shoulder. What would he do, she wondered, if he knew he had so often touched a girl old enough to be his wife? "Because your parents let your brother train and not you?" he asked.
That's what all law-abiding parents do. "Kind of." His hand slid to the ground beside her. He let the silence stretch. The horses were grazing together, not far away. Julianne idly wondered if her Ponyta had been taken from his mother early: he stood beside Alex's old mare, his flank barely touching hers.
"My P'pa got me the apprenticeship with the apothecary," Alex said finally. "I'm not a very good fisherman, so he worked it out with the old man. After P'pa died, I worked for all I was worth to help Ma out. I don't know what P'pa'd say if he knew I'd given up on it."
"But you said he had a related apprentice now," Julianne said, not certain what Alex's point was. "That he was probably going to let you go anyhow."
"He might not have. But Uncle Gelain set me straight. I wasn't going to be much of an apothecary, either. So now I'll be trying to train full time, instead of when the apothecary doesn't need me." Julianne knew anything she tried to say would sound rude, so she remained quiet. "What I mean is, P'pa tried to choose something for me that he thought would work out. But it didn't. Maybe what your folks have planned isn't the best thing for you, either."
Julianne looked at him. That is the most awful, stupid thing I have ever heard. It was all the worse, that it would likely have been true - if she wasn't a girl. Even if she'd been born a boy, Poppa wouldn't have stood for two Pokémon trainers in the family. It was too haphazard of an occupation - and with Avius' habits, much too expensive.
"You have to go more north before you head east, don't you?" Alex asked. Julianne nodded mutely. "I want to go to Viridian Township to get some supplies, and into Viridian Forest to try to catch some Pokémon."
"I have to go north, then northeast while in the forest," Julianne muttered. "When I get out of the forest I go east to the coast. I'd need to follow that to get home."
"All right then. Listen here." She looked at him skeptically. "We can head on to Viridian Township, and through the forest." We, Julianne echoed silently. There can't be any we, you foolish boy. You have no idea what you're saying. "We can both be trainers 'til then, catching what we want and training best as we can. Tch!" he said, before she could interrupt. "When we get out of the forest, if you decide training isn't right for you, then you can drop it and go on home. I'll take whatever Pokémon you can't keep, if you don't want to release them."
You can't travel with a boy! reason screamed at her. If you have to be rude, you have to dismiss him! Immediately! NOW! When you get home, you can explain to Poppa about the disguise, about how Alexus met you as the apothecary's apprentice - mention nothing of his acting too familiar around you - then it will be all right, Poppa will send him on his way if he comes to the mill. That is the right way. That is what you have to do! Do it! DO IT, Julianne!!
"Would you even take Runt?" she asked quietly.
"Which?"
Julianne bit her lip. You're being an idiot, a dunce, a fool! Fool! Fool! Fool! her mind taunted her. "My Lapras. All that's near my house is a narrow little river. She wouldn't be happy there. But you already have water-types, like your Tentacool..."
"Y-you'd give away your Lapras?" Alex stammered. "The one you used in the tournament?"
"I'd have to. I could only give her to my brother if I went home. I couldn't do that to her."
"I'd gladly have her!" Alex declared. "From what I've seen, she's a great Pokémon. And if it's how much of a type I've got that you're worried about, remember that she's not just a water-type. She's an ice-type, and I haven't got any of those."
That ice attack Runt used in the tournament... so Lapras had a secondary type, just like Poliwrath did. Did all water types have a secondary type as well? Ice melts in heat, she thought to herself. Does that mean Runt wouldn't be as immune to fire attacks as a normal water-type?
She shouldn't accept Alex's offer, she knew that quite well. It was based on logic that didn't apply to her, and meant continuing to flout basic decency and breaking Imperial law. "A...all right."
If Runt could be happy, she would risk a few days in Alex's company. I don't actually have to catch anything... She hadn't caught any of her Pokémon, anyhow! Xavier had been found in her mother's garden, and Catcher had been born there. Uli had been the only one she couldn't release from the poacher's hoard, Runt had been bought, and colt- the Ponyta! - had been won. If I don't catch anything, there won't be any proof that I can catch anything. Julianne gratefully took a small measure of comfort from that, as she looked up at the sky with a grimace. I need the comfort, she thought with despair. There's no way we'll get to Viridian Township before nightfall, and it's not going to be very comfortable sleeping out here without any gear.
It looked like she was going to need a lot more than just tacking.
Tacking, saddlebags, food, flint to start a fire, a bedroll, a leather blanket cured to keep out rain, a proper pokéball belt, a jerkin that wasn't so long as the doublet she had been making due with (but with a bulky inner lining that helped pad her front to an even flatness)... Julianne spent an entire gold round in Viridian, much to the happiness of the local merchants. Alex was awestruck, especially when she used the coppers remaining from it to purchase them separate rooms at an inn. "Does your p'pa mill gold, mainlander?" he asked her once.
"Of course not," she retorted, but could not tell him why she carried so much money. It would reveal far too much. Slave traders would not steal a thirteen-year-old boy near as quickly as they would a girl of similar age. She didn't want to lie again, either. So she said nothing, though she desperately wanted to explain, to be able to trust him as he did her.