"What do you mean?" Castform asked.
"Well, I'm sure there are wild Pokemon around here. It's a common practice for inexperienced Pokemon to battle a wild Pokemon or two before battling another human-trained Pokemon. But only if you're not too tired!"
"No, I'm okay," Castform said.
"Alright," Mari began to scan the grassland. She hadn't seen any Pokemon since they started out, and assumed that they were hiding in the grass. Spotting a tree up ahead that wasn't too far off the road, Mari decided to investigate. Leading her Pokemon out into the grass, Seedot could quickly be made out hanging from scarcely lush branches. The tree's water-greedy roots had created a grass-free zone for a few meters around the tree. Getting closer, the acorn Pokemon were about Castform's size and hung onto the tree branches by the twigs on their heads.
The pair of intruders arrived at the tree, and the Seedot did little to even acknowledge their presence. Only a few even looked at them with their seedy eyes.
"Hey," Mari addressed the Pokemon. "Any of you up for a battle?"
None of them so much as twitched.
"Cas, casform, cas!" Mari's grey companion shouted at them.
Almost instantly, the sound of a snapping branch and a thud could be heard, and a rather large dark brown Seedot was on the ground, walking towards them with a scowl on his face and in his eyes. "See, see… dot!" it growled at Castform in a deep tone.
"Castform," Mari questioned, "What did you say to them?"
Castform smiled with unrepentant guilt. "I called them a bunch of Apricorns."
Mari frowned with incomprehension, but shrugged and faced the Seedot. He had large, clumsy feet and no legs, and he waddled towards them like a penguin. 'What kind of attacks could this thing possibly use?' Mari asked herself.
Seedot answered by making the first move. Stopping five feet short of Castform, his brown skin and shell began to take on a very shiny appearance, but without changing color.
"Castform, it's using Harden. Your Ember won't be affected. Hit him head on with it!" Mari was just as intent on teaching Castform about battling as she was about winning this, their first battle.
Castform, who was hovering about a meter above the ground, quickly got directly above Seedot and unleashed a fireball on him. The acorn Pokemon squealed, and emerged from the flames charred and de-Hardened.
"Great job, keep it up!" Mari encouraged.
Castform did not verbally respond, but inhaled deeply for her next attack. Simultaneously, Seedot began to glow. This time, however, he turned white and luminous.
Unsure of what Seedot was doing, Mari did not interfere with Castform's attack, but watched closely.
Castform spit out with some effort a second ball of fire, this on larger than the first! It, too, hit the stationary Seedot. But this time, instead of losing his focus and cancelling his attack, Seedot's white aura only grew larger and brighter!
Castform had circled Seedot and was preparing a third Ember when Mari shouted at her to stop. "Castform! Seedot is using Bide! He will stay motionless like that for a while longer and then send your attacks back at you double the power! You don't have time to finish him off before he attacks, so for now stop attacking and get ready to dodge his attack!"
Wide eyed, Castform nodded and waited.
The Seedot did not move for a moment. It wasn't a long wait, but it was agonizing for Castform who had no idea of what to expect.
Very quickly, Seedot's aura contracted back into himself, and was then unleashed in a Seedot-sized sphere of white light! Castform, however, hadn't been far enough away from Seedot to react in time. The Bide energy ball hit.
Castform shrieked. The pain of fire on Seedot's grass-type skin had been doubled and unleashed on Castform's soft body. Dropping to the ground, Castform did not move, but glared at Seedot. The other Pokemon had not moved.
"Oh, Castform!" Mari rushed over to her Pokemon. Afraid to touch her, she leaned over her and spoke. "Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not okay!" Castform growled, but got up from the ground and faced Mari. "But I'll live. Let's finish this!"
Mari grimly pursed her lips and nodded. "Go use Ember, now!"
Castform immediately shot off for Seedot, but he had already set up another Bide! Castform paused, but Mari urged her on. "You have to finish him before he can unleash the Bide energy on you! Hurry!"
Not needing anything further, Castform set off an anger-fueled Ember at the Seedot. Encased in flames, a groan emitted from the Pokemon, but he was not done yet.
"Unbelievable," Mari muttered. "Castform, he's almost done. Finish with Tackle, quick!"
Castform, near frantic to beat the Seedot before he could attack again, took a position about three meters from her glowing opponent and charged. As she fast approached her target, Castform watched in horror as Seedot's white aura contracted, ready to be released! Urging herself forward, she made contact. The impact jarred her body, but Seedot was hurled several feet back, landing in the tall grass. His white glow disintegrated into painless nothing. Seedot was out.
"Yes!" both Mari and Castform cried. Mari ran for her tired Pokemon and embraced her in a hug.
"I'm so proud of you!" Mari exclaimed.
"Me too," Castform said, surprised by herself. "It was hard, but it was fun, too! And there's no way I would have known how to beat him without you."
Mari laughed with glee and nodded. "It'll only get harder and funner as we go. But for now, let's see about those wounds." Mari swung her golden brown leather backpack off her shoulder and dug around in it. Removing a small yellow spray bottle, she instructed Castform to stay still as she sprayed her wounds. Castform complained that is stung at first, but quieted down as it soothed her cuts and bruises.
The Seedot had regained consciousness and was gingerly waddling back to his tree. Mari and Castform turned to look at him. "Seeeee dot," it grumbled.
"What did it say?" Mari asked Castform.
"Good battle," she translated.
"Oh," Mari replied. Glancing at her potion bottle, she approached Seedot as he made it to the base of the tree trunk. 'Here, Seedot," Mari said placing her hand on his head. "This'll sting a bit at first, but it'll make you feel better."
Seedot winced as she sprayed his wounds, but stood still. When she was finished, he looked at her and smiled. "Dot," he said.
Mari, not needing a translation this time, smiled back. "You're welcome."
The Seedot hopped up to the nearest branch and attached himself to it, rejoining the passive state of the others.
Mari plopped down on the ground and leaned against the tree trunk, Castform joining her in enjoying the shade.
After a short rest, Mari stood up. She took a bottle of water out of her leather backpack and took a gulp. She quickly remembered, however, that she didn't have any dishes for Castform.
"I could just squirt some in your mouth," she suggested.
"That's okay, I can do it," Castform said and stretched her grey 'hands' out, taking the bottle from Mari. Taken by surprise, she relinquished the object to her. Castform opened her mouth and leaned back, copying Mari by squeezing the bottle. A stream of water came out, and Castform gulped most of it down, though some did spray onto her face. She licked her lips free of excess water and handed the bottle back to Mari.
She accepted it, and looked in disbelief from the bottle to her Pokemon. "Since when do you have thumbs?"
Castform's mitten-like hands had already retracted into her body, and she appeared to be greatly amused by Mari's bewildered look. "I am part Ditto, you know."
Laughing, Mari said, "Yes, I believe Electra did mention that." The two got back on the dirt road and reassumed walking. Mari reached around and opened a side pocket of her backpack, bringing out the PPD Ghilbee had given her. She selected the map function and quickly brought up the area they were in. A small blinking red dot identified their position on the map. "Great! We're about half way there!" She glanced at her watch, too. It was almost eleven. Hopefully they'd be in Slateport in time for lunch.
They were approaching the top of a hill when a small blue thing came running past them, catching Mari's attention. She slowed down slightly looking after the blue thing when she heard Castform squeak "Look out!" and she looked in front of her. An angry Seviper leapt over the hill in front of Mari, and she spun around her legs to move out of the way, but to no avail. She smacked into the hissing fanged snake, tumbling to the ground.
Mari leapt away from the serpent, but stumbled and fell back to the ground. Propping herself up on her elbows, adrenaline pulsed through her veins. Her eyes locked into the blood red eyes of the Seviper. It released a blood-curdling hiss, baring its large yellow fangs dripping with poison. Mari prepared herself to run with all her might as far away as she could from this place, but to her surprise the Pokemon bolted away down the road. It entwined its jet-black body around the small blue creature. Castform dashed behind her trainer and peeked out at the situation from behind her shoulder, speechless.
Frightened, but no longer in eminent danger, Mari organized her thoughts. The small blue spider Pokemon, a Surskit as she recalled, was what she had seen running past her just before the Seviper clashed with her. The Surskit must have been its goal, not her.
"Kendar, finish with Poison Tail!" said a female voice. Running over the hill where the two Pokemon had come from, a girl appeared.
The Seviper quickly released the Surskit from the coils of its body. The spider, obviously battered, began to run away. Its large triangular tail glowing deep purple, Seviper struck its opponent with its tail. The fight was over. Surskit was down.
"Good work, Kendar," the girl said as she threw a Great Ball at Surskit. The ball collected Surskit up in its red light and did not let it go. It was captured.
Walking over to pick up her new Pokemon, the girl also stroked Seviper's neck. "That was great! You're getting better and better at this all the time!" Turning to Mari she said with an apologetic smile, "Hi, sorry about Kendar scaring you like that. We didn't know anyone else was up here."
Releasing a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, Mari replied, "Oh, it's okay. No harm done." Glancing behind her at the unnerved Castform she added, "Well, no physical harm anyway."
The girl laughed. "Again, sorry. I'm Atzie, and this guy is Kendar my Seviper." She held out her hand.
Mari shook it. "I'm Mari, and this is Castform."
Mari now made a better inspection of Atzie. Her own height was a bit less than average, but Atzie was even shorter, despite the fact that she appeared to be older than Mari. Her hair, however, made up for any lost body height. The roots and tips were bright blonde, but the majority was cherry red with a hint of yellow to better match the blonde. It was long, and arranged in several loose, long spikes that were held back by a hair band. The strips of hair went in all directions, giving it a fiery appearance. Her eyes were slightly darker than jade, and her bright clothes were matched only by her hair. She wore red cargo pants made of silky fabric and a white cotton short-sleeved shirt with the word "STAR" printed on it in bold red. The vibrancy of her attire was sharply contrasted by a worn and faded camouflage print backpack, which looked sorely out of place.
Realizing she was staring, Mari blushed. "I take it red is your favorite color?"
Atzie laughed light-heartedly. "It is this week."
"Oh," she laughed. Castform was still nervously looking out from behind her trainer, eyeing the Seviper and his trainer wearily. "C'mon, Castform, say hi!" The Pokemon looked at Atzie and nodded, but her eyes drifted back to Seviper with uncertainty.
Mari pat her head and said to Atzie, "She's pretty shy, and your Seviper scared her. But she'll get over it eventually."
Nodding, she asked, "You going to Slateport?"
"Yeah."
"Great! We can go together! It's been awhile since I had companionship while traveling." Kendar snorted at his trainer and she quickly added, "IHuman/I companionship, that is." Not waiting for a response, she turned around and walked for Slateport.
Taking a few running steps to catch up, Mari walked next to her. The large Seviper quietly traveled on the other side of Atzie. Castform was careful to be as far as she could from him.
Atzie still had her new Surskit's Pokeball in her hand, and took a small device out of her backpack. It was similar to Mari's PPD but was made of two joined circles like an eight, and the top circle was much smaller than the other. Atzie placed the Pokeball on the smaller circle and pressed several options on the screen of the larger. The Pokeball briefly glowed white, and disappeared.