The first week passed by swiftly. Sam and I trekked onwards, mostly going through forests and occasionally some grassy fields. This Pokémon world sure was full of nature. Each night, we tried battling each other, and I felt I was starting to get the hang of it. Sam said that some Pokémon measure their abilities in levels, but he didn't. I thought that was kind of weird to do, because as far as I could tell, fighting was just like exercising here. It would make you stronger the more you did it.
Sam and I talked a lot about my world. I told him how a lot of things functioned, and he was deeply interested in pretty much everything. It seems that the only thing I can't remember are details about my parents and some of my family. Maybe Arceus made me forget so I would not be so homesick? I'm not sure. All I know is I want to get home to see what I'm missing.
"So what's a high school?" Sam asked me, referring back to a previous conversation we had had.
"High school is the last place you go to to learn before you typically leave home." I replied. "We would go there for a few years, and then decide what we're doing with our lives. We would move out of our parents home, and go to college or whatever we choose to do. Some people would get married, and then make their own families. I was still in high school before I got here."
"What kind of things do you learn?"
"Oh you know- history, science, geography, mathematics, ... A lot of really boring stuff that we don't usually use."
"That sounds really cool! I've had to learn a lot of those things by just reading! Why do you sound so bummed out about it?"
"Most of us didn't want to learn about all that. I mean, sure it's useful, but it was so boring the way that they taught us. We had to fill out worksheets and diagrams, all sorts of boring stuff."
"Hmm..." Sam said, pondering over my words. "Well, I think I would like it."
"Of course you would." I joked. "That's because you're a nerd!"
Sam looked over at me with a confused expression. "Nerd? What's a nerd?"
"A nerd is what you call someone who is way into studying and research... A lot of people use it as an insult, but you can be a nerd and be cool at the same time."
"Oh... well then yes I am! I am a nerd!" Sam said triumphantly.
I laughed. Sam wasn't that too bad of a guy. In fact, if we went to the same high school, I probably would like to be good friends with him.
Soon though, Sam asked me a question.
"Eva, was Jake a nerd then?"
I stopped cold in my thoughts. I hadn't considered that. What if Jake was too smart for us? I mean, if he knew a lot about Pokémon, maybe he ruined Hector and Rebecca's plan before they could finish setting it up? Also, if they were to use pop culture references, wouldn't he know them? How would they ensure that he could not teach his followers his knowledge of things like that?
"I guess..." I said.
"Well then..." Sam gulped. "W-what if he knows what p-pop-culture they used? W-w-what if he taught his followers...?" He trailed off.
"I... don't know." I said. I wasn't going to lie to Sam, I really didn't! It was my hope that they knew what they were doing when they made the books.
——————————-
Sam taught me a few more things about the world of Pokémon. There were 18 different Pokémon types: Normal, Fire, Water, Grass, Ice, Rock, Electric, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Psychic, Flying, Bug, Dark, Ghost, Dragon, Steel and Fairy. Some Pokémon could even learn moves of another type. For example, Bite is a Dark type move, even though I'm a normal type. It is weird that biting someone is not normal.
...Whoa, I'm glad I said that in my head!
There are also some moves that takes practice in order to learn, like one called 'baby-doll eyes'. I guess it's kinda like when a puppy gives you those big eyes when it's begging for something, and it's hard not to give them food? Like the 'dog face' from that one Disney movie. And it is still weird to think that these are actual move names.
You know, in retrospect it makes sense you would have to practice moves in order to get better at them. It's like any other thing in my world! In order to learn to draw, you need to try drawing a lot. Does that mean I can learn any move? Probably not. But I can always consult Sam if I'm curious about a specific move.
"Gosh, I never thought my basic knowledge of things could be so useful!" Sam said after he had explained to me about Pokémon types and moves. "I'm so glad that reading books for so long wasn't all for naught!"
We were almost to Capkin town by now. Sam said that we are ahead of schedule, and that we should get there by the next day or so. I was kinda surprised, he had said it would take a couple weeks, but it had taken us only a week, maybe a week and a half. I guess Sam was assuming we would've taken longer by walking.
We were walking around a bend in the road when we both heard something on the right side of the path behind us. We turned around to glimpse something scrambling in tree branches, and then promptly fall into the bush below it. Sam walked over and peeked through the shrubbery.
"Hey Eva." Sam called to me. "Come take a look at this."
I walked over to see what he was talking about. There, behind the bush, was a small brown owl-like Pokémon. It was about the same size as me, albeit a little smaller. It had two leaves on its chest, positioned to look almost like a small bowtie. They seemed to grow out from under its feathers. It's eyes were closed, and it's large beak was an uncommon shade of red underneath.
"What kind of Pokémon is it?" I asked Sam.
"Well," he said looking the owl Pokémon over. "It looks like a Rowlet... but it's like there's something off about him..."
"Other than the fact that falling out of a tree into a bush seemed to knock him unconscious?"
"Hmm..." Sam said, still in thought.
After a minute of standing there, staring at the little owl. Sam spoke up again.
"Well, it's getting late as it is. We ought to camp around here for the night." Sam spotted a grassy plain nearby. "There." He said, pointing over to it.
"What about this guy?" I asked. We turned our heads downward to look at the unconscious little owl.
"Let's bring him with us. Maybe we'll be able to figure out what happened when he wakes up?"
——————————-
The Rowlet slept for quite a while. We set up our camp in a decent-looking area, and started preparing for dinner. Sam got out a pot while I looked around for some sticks for a fire. Once we got it all ready, Sam brought his tail to the wood pile to light it.
"So how do you not catch everything on fire?" I asked him, noting how the flame on his tail has not yet caused any issues for us thus far.
"Well, a lot of Charmanders and other fire types have trouble controlling their flame," Sam explained. "When I was little, I accidentally burned my favorite picture book. I was so sad that I never wanted to burn things ever again, unless I needed to. I learned more about controlling my fire over time, and since I stayed inside reading a lot, I had to be very careful. The trick is to not get too emotional, or else you can easily lose focus and accidentally catch something on fire."
"So does it still burn things when you're focused?"
"If in meaning to, yeah. If I keep focus and don't want to burn things, my tail can brush up against practically anything and it will only provide just a little heat to whatever it touches."
"Wow. That's pretty cool."
We started boiling some water from a stream in the pot to make some sort of soup. Sam was doing most of the cooking, I was just helping gather things.
Eventually we got the pot to a nice simmer, and we just had to wait for it to cook.
"Oouhh?" A quiet voice cooed softly.
Sam and I glanced behind ourselves to see the Rowlet finally arise off of the makeshift bed we placed him in. He opened his big wide eyes and looked around. He stared straight at us.
"Uh, hiya!" Sam said to him, with a hand behind his head. "We found you under a tree while we were walking... did you fall out?"
The owl just continued to stare at us.
"Is he... feral?" I whispered to Sam.
"I-I don't think so..." he muttered back. "Hey, Uhh... are- are you okay there?"
The Rowlet kept staring.
"Uhh..." Sam said aloud, obviously not knowing what to do.
"HEY!" I shouted at the bird. "CAN YOU SAY ANYTHING?!!"
The Rowlet suddenly jolted forward. He tripped over the cushion he was on, and fell face-first into the dirt.
"Ooh, sorry... I zoned out there..." the bird finally said as he picked himself up. "The name's Rou." Sam and I glanced at each other. "Do you have any... apples, by chance?"
"Uhh... yeah." Sam said as he walked to his bag and stuck a hand inside. "Here's an apple." He pulled out an apple and tossed it to Rou.
Rou immediately caught the apple in his beak, set it down and started eating it. After he finished the apple, he chirped happily.
"Thank you for the delicious meal and the kindness you've shown me! What were your names again?"
"Um, that's Sam," I replied. "And I'm Eva."
"Excellent. Nice to meet you Sam. And you too Eva. I'll get out of your way then. Good night!"
And just like that, Rou fluttered away and was gone.
"Well he was a queer fellow." I said to Sam as we finished making dinner.
"I'll say." Sam replied. "He just wanted something to eat?"
"I guess so, yeah."
"Well, if he hadn't left, we could have offered him some soup."
"Yeah. Well, oh well. More for us I guess!"
"Yeah. I guess."
We ate dinner and settled in for the night. Sam and I had gotten pretty used to each other by now I guess. We haven't really fought for a while, and I'm glad. We seem to get along pretty well now, and I hope that doesn't change.
As we went to sleep, I couldn't stop thinking about Jake and Hector and all of them. Was Jake really what Hector had written him out to be? What about Rebecca, what was she like? I just hope that this wasn't all fiction and that I could hopefully wish myself home. It seems crazy that, just two weeks ago, I was probably sitting in my room talking to my friend on the phone. My old life seems so far away. What if I can't get myself home? Would I be stuck here forever? What about my parents, and my brother? Would they be okay? These thoughts seemed to keep me awake for a little while.
Eventually, I finally drifted off to sleep.
I woke up the next morning to a loud clanging. I awoke out of bed to find something with the metal pot stuck on it, moving around violently in order to pull it off. I looked over at Sam to find it had startled him awake also. We crept out of our beds and slowly made our way towards the trapped creature.
Then, one we had gotten close enough, Sam placed his claws on the pot, and pulled it off!
We saw that underneath the metal pot... was Rou!
"What?! Rou?!! Why were you-" Sam started.
"Ack! Eeep! Uh, time to go!" Rou hollered. And with that, he took off flying away.
"What was he...?" I asked Sam.
"Doing? No clue."
We looked around our campsite. We couldn't find anything else other than the pot to be messed with. Nothing was taken, nothing was moved... It looked like Rou had just gotten in the pot and got stuck!
"Well," Sam said as we finished packing up. "We should get to Capkin town by about noon today."
"Sweet." I said, eager to head out. "Let's get going then!"
I was ready to hopefully get some answers. Maybe at Rockets cavern we would finally get some information on what exactly I am doing here. Maybe I just had to talk to Jake, and convince him to let everyone go? Maybe the Relick stone was there, and I could just wish for everyone to go home! I was trying not to have my hopes up too high, but things were finally starting to look like they were getting better.