Wednesday, April 18th, 2018
I kept my eyes shut tight when I woke up, not wanting to invite another round of pain. However, when I realized that the constant lighter pain was gone, I slowly opened my eyes and was relieved to find that there was no pain. I wasn't sure if I was completely better since it was almost completely dark and so the light sensitivity that I had before going to sleep wasn't a concern.
Sitting up on my sleeping bag, I saw that my Pokemon had me completely surrounded as they slept. Peren was directly on my right and Shadow was on my left, with Scout sleeping soundly on Shadow's fluffy tail. Blitz usually claimed one of the bases' corners for himself, but he'd chosen to nest only a foot away from Peren, with Nin laid out between the two of them so that he could bask in both of their body heat.
I was still looking around the room when I felt Shadow stirring at my side and she looked up to stare directly at me. I could feel her regret and concern from across our connection and I reached over to stroke her head. As quietly as I could, I said, "It's alright, I'm fine. You can go back to sleep." I saw Scout's ears twitch slightly, but thankfully none of my other Pokemon reacted. I got the normal feeling of warmth from Shadow across our connection before she slowly lowered her head back to the floor.
I wished that I could follow her lead, but I knew from experience that going to sleep when I did had completely messed up my sleep schedule and it would be impossible for me to fall asleep again. I sighed, resigned to the fact that I would have to tough it out for the rest of the day. I carefully extracted myself from my sleeping bag and moved to an edge of the secret base. Being sure to angle it so that the light didn't shine on any of my Pokemon, I turned my Poryphone on and was relieved to find that there was no pain from looking at the screen. While I was certainly glad for the lack of pain, I was barely able to suppress a groan when I saw that it was only three in the morning.
Without much to do while I waited for the time to pass, I leaned against one of the leafy walls of the secret base. I knew that it was time to figure out what to do about Poochyena since I was able to think clearly unlike before. The first thing that I needed to do was process the story that Shadow and Peren had shown me. Back in the fall, Al had told me that there was a good chance that the pack would have issues surviving the winter, and it seemed like that had been the case. Despite how we'd met them, I couldn't help but feel a bit bad about the two that had seemingly died.
Then again, the vision hadn't exactly been clear, and I supposed it was possible that they had gone off on their own as Poochyena had. It was obvious that she had been the one to leave at the end, but I couldn't fathom why she'd waited. It would have made sense if she had shown up at Al's lab over the winter to beg for scraps, but she had stayed with the pack, only to leave when things should have been better. I briefly wondered if something had happened to the rest of them, but discarded the idea almost immediately. That definitely would have been something that would have been conveyed if it had been the case.
Ultimately, I supposed that her reason for leaving didn't matter, I needed to figure out what to do about it. Scout and Peren both clearly had some hesitations about Poochyena, but I had a feeling that they wouldn't actually protest. With how easy-going both of them were, I doubted that it would turn into a real issue. That meant that with my Pokemon more or less on board, I was stuck with my own hesitations.
The thing that was holding me back the most was that I couldn't help but feel like adding another Pokemon to my team would mean turning my back on my home. I was willing to recognize that I'd become increasingly fine with the idea of staying in the Pokemon world over the previous few months, but doing what Al asked would be another step beyond that. The Pokemon that I already had were more than enough to earn me sufficient money to survive, so catching another one felt like I was needlessly ingraining myself in the world.
Then again, if I was going to stay in the Pokemon world, which was looking like it was the most likely outcome for many reasons, adding Poochyena to my team would be the most logical decision. I went in circles several more times before sighing and deciding that I needed to get out of my own head. I turned my Poryphone's screen back on and opened the messaging app, writing a message to John and asking him to give me a call when he woke up, being sure to add that it wasn't urgent. I knew that he slept with his own phone on silent so I didn't have to feel bad about sending him a text in the middle of the night. With the decision put off for now, I quietly crept back to my backpack to retrieve one of my books so I would have something to distract me for a few hours.
When my Pokemon eventually started to wake up, they were all clearly glad to see that I was feeling better, with Shadow repeatedly sending apologetic feelings across our link. I had to assure her multiple times that it was fine before she stopped, and I spent some extra time brushing her mane and tail.
As expected, Nin was the last one to wake up and his rousing heralded the start of breakfast. Since I'd woken up so early, I opted to have an energy bar instead of skipping the meal like I usually did. While I munched on the bar, my eyes fell on the bag of food and then the rope that led back outside. One of my Pokemon must have pulled the rope into the base like I usually did since the end was coiled on the base's platform.
I contemplated things for another couple of seconds before shoving the rest of the energy bar into my mouth and standing up. Blitz had already finished eating so I grabbed his food bowl on my way to the bag of Pokemon food and filled it up with another slightly larger portion. I wasn't sure how much a Poochyena should eat, but it seemed about the right amount. When that was done, I carried the bowl back to the edge of the base and kicked the rope off of the edge.
I was about to start climbing down when I noticed that everyone except Nin had stopped eating and were looking at me. "It'll be fine guys. Blitz will come with me just in case." That earned me a scathing glare from the Fletchinder, but he flapped his wings and flew down the base's exit anyway. With a slight smile, I followed him down on the rope, being sure to take it extra slow since I was holding onto the food bowl with one hand.
When I was far enough down the rope to be able to see outside again, I saw that Blitz had already perched in a tree and Poochyena was in the process of getting back to her feet. Still feeling a bit weird about the situation, I awkwardly said, "Good morning." Poochyena tilted her head at that and softly whined. I was about to apologize for making her sleep out in the cold but realized that she would have been used to that. When she kept staring at me, I remembered that she'd made a similar sound the previous day after I got my headache. "I'm feeling a lot better now," I said, and my guess must have been correct since she answered with a happy-sounding bark.
"Uh, anyway. I brought you some breakfast," I said as I took a few steps closer and set the bowl down on the ground. Poochyena eyed the bowl of dried Pokemon for several seconds before hesitantly approaching it. "It's all for you," I had to assure her before she finally dug in.
I watched her hungrily eat the food for a bit before suddenly shivering, belatedly realizing how cold it still was outside. I pulled out my Poryphone to check the weather and was glad to see that the temperature would gradually go up throughout the day until it got to the upper forties. I was about to put the device back into my pocket when it started ringing. Poochyena's head shot up at the sudden noise and I quickly said, "It's alright. It's just my phone." I wasn't sure if she actually knew what that meant, but she still went back to her food after a second. With that taken care of, I looked up at Blitz. "I'm going to step away to take this," I said and Blitz responded with a dismissive chirp.
I walked away with a smile and tapped the button to answer the call. "Hello?"
"Hey man, everything alright?" John's voice came through the speakers. "I saw you sent that text in the middle of the night."
"Nah, I'm fine. I wasn't feeling well last night so I ended up going to bed super early. Feeling fine now though."
"That's good. So what's up then?"
I took a deep breath before answering to ready myself for a conversation that I didn't know how to approach. "I need some advice. There's a Pokemon that wants to join my team, but I'm not sure about it."
"Why's that? They butting heads with Blitz or something?"
I couldn't help but snort at that. "Sort of, but it's not actually Blitz. And that's not the reason why. It's just…" I started but stopped to collect my thoughts. John stayed silent, giving me the time that I needed. I finally managed to finish, "Adding another Pokemon to my roster just feels like giving up on going home for some reason. I'm not even sure I want to go home at this point, but the idea of not going home… never seeing my friends or family again… I'm not sure if I can handle catching a new Pokemon when I'm stuck thinking about that."
As I trailed off again, John wasted no time in answering and promptly said, "You should catch them."
I coughed at the abrupt declaration and weakly asked, "Really? Just like that?"
"Yeah man. Just like that. If they don't work out with the rest of your team, you can just release them, and hey, at least you tried. And if you do end up going back home, me and Cait would be happy to help find them a new home. You've got to do what's best for you there."
I silently stood there for several long seconds until I could find my voice again. "Dude, what the hell? What'd I do to get a friend like you?"
I could practically hear John shrug on the other end of the phone. "I can't imagine being in the situation you're in so I just want to help however I can." He paused for a moment then pressed, "You're going to catch them, right? What Pokemon is it anyway?"
I gave a strained laugh. "Yeah, I will. And she's a Poochyena."
"Oh, nice. A dark and ice Pokemon like Mightyena would really fill out your team. Actually, speaking of that, you said you're heading up to the Duluth area right?"
I wasn't entirely sure what to make of his segue, and hesitantly answered, "Yeah?"
"Awesome. I'm planning on heading up to the Iron Range to catch some new Pokemon that live up there. I'm not really sure when I'm leaving yet, but do you want to travel together for a while?"
After the casual, yet massive, gesture of friendship that John had just made there was no way that I would have said no, and I wouldn't have wanted to either way. "Yeah, that sounds great. How about I wait in Duluth and we can head out after we both beat the gym?"
"Perfect, I'll see you then!"
"Cool. And thanks again."
"No problem man. Good luck with your new teammate!" With that, John ended the call. I slowly pulled the Poryphone away from my face and stared at it for a moment before smiling and lightly shaking my head. Before putting the phone away, I sent Al a text letting him know that I was feeling better and was planning on catching Poochyena.
Poochyena had already finished eating and was patiently sitting next to the bowl when I got back to where I'd left her and Blitz. After a glance confirmed that Blitz was still sitting quietly in his tree, I asked Poochyena, "Was the food good?" She nodded vigorously at the question and I chuckled at her earnestness. "Well, that's good, because there'll be more coming your way in the future."
It took her a half-second to realize what that meant and her eyes widened. I also noticed Blitz shift slightly in his perch so that he was staring directly at us. "It'll be more of a trial period at first," I cautioned. "If things don't work out for you or one of my other Pokemon, I'll help you get situated elsewhere." Surprisingly, Poochyena instantly answered with another nod, her eyes conveying the utmost seriousness.
"Well, alright then. In that case, I'll go get a Pokeball and everyone else." I leaned down to pick up the empty bowl on the ground, but on impulse changed my target and scratched Poochyena behind the ear instead. I smiled when she closed her eyes and made a low, pleased-sounding growl. I stopped after a few seconds and said, "I'll be right back," then walked back over to the secret base with the bowl in hand.
When I climbed back into the secret base I saw that everyone had finished their meals and were relaxing in various spots on the platform. Everyone except for Nin looked up at my entrance and I decided it would be best to rip off the metaphorical bandaid. "I've decided to catch Poochyena." Before any of my Pokemon could react, I quickly added, "I talked to her and she agreed that if things don't work out, then I'll release her." I got a ping of approval from Shadow as I finished, though Scout looked a bit nervous and Peren just gave me a slow nod. Nin opened his eyes to give me a half-lidded look, but I wasn't sure what that meant since I'd never gotten the hang of interpreting the rare emotions from my Ekans.
With no one making any verbal protests, I recalled all four Pokemon and made my way over to my backpack. As I was searching through, I was almost surprised by how many empty Pokeballs I found inside since it had been months since I'd paid them any attention. In addition to the two Pokeballs that I'd bought or repaired in December, there were the Dusk and Net balls that I'd gotten for Christmas. I ended up grabbing the Pokeball that I'd originally caught Mightyena in since it seemed fitting and returned the other three to my bag.
As I climbed back down the rope, I considered that by catching Poochyena, I would finally have what would constitute a full team back in the games. Here though, I would still have four more empty slots on my roster after the catch. Since I'd finally admitted to myself that I might choose to stay in the Pokemon world, I decided it was time to finally start thinking about what I would want those last slots to look like.
When my feet were firmly back on the ground, I sent out all of my Pokemon again, though this time I remembered to send Nin out so that he was draped around my shoulders instead of on the cold ground. Peren and Scout stared at Poochyena when they'd finished materializing, but thankfully they didn't seem as suspicious and reserved as they had the previous day.
Holding her future Pokeball in my hand, I turned my attention to Poochyena and asked, "So how do you want to do this?" When she tilted her head, I elaborated, "Do you want to have a battle first like Blitz did or…" I trailed off as I realized that all of the rest of my Pokemon had joined me simply because I'd asked.
When Poochyena shook her head, I crouched down, holding the Pokeball out toward her. She wasted no time in moving toward the ball, though she paused when my Poryphone buzzed in my pocket. "It's fine. It's just my phone again," I told her with a smile. She nodded and took the last few steps forward in order to push her snout into the Pokeball's button. She was instantly sucked inside of the device, and it dinged without even shaking a single time. The moment that the capture was confirmed, I pressed the button to send Poochyena back out and spoke up with a grin. "Welcome to the team."
The sentiment was presumably echoed by the rest of the team with even Blitz chirping and Nin lightly hissing in my ear. The only exception was Shadow, who stayed silent as usual, though I could feel frustration radiating off of her. While it wouldn't have many battle applications given her eventual fairy typing, I decided that I should prioritize teaching her Miracle Eye so she could talk to her newest teammate. Peren's eyes darted toward Shadow for a moment before he turned back to Poochyena and said something. I could feel Shadow relax after that and I made a mental note to thank him later.
I watched my Pokemon converse for a bit longer before checking my Poryphone. As I'd expected, it was a message from Al saying that he was glad I was giving Poochyena a shot. He'd added that he'd let Tammy know so that she wouldn't get worried by the notification that I'd once again caught a Pokemon in the Poochyena family. I felt a bit bad that I hadn't thought of that as I read the rest of the lengthy message. He also suggested that I take Poochyena into the Pokemon Center for a checkup. He said that she seemed healthy enough, but he'd also heard her cough an odd number of times. I remembered that she had coughed during her story and even if there wasn't something wrong it would probably be a good idea to bring her in for a checkup. I hadn't thought to do that when I'd caught Blitz and Nin, but it seemed like something that I should do for every new Pokemon.
I sent Al a reply thanking him for the advice and asking if we could push dinner back another day so that my Pokemon and I could spend the day with Poochyena. He responded immediately saying that he thought that was a great idea and was looking forward to hearing about how she was getting along with the rest of my Pokemon over dinner. A look around the area revealed that we were off to a decent start there, if only because Peren was being forced to act as an interpreter for Shadow and Poochyena, making him more involved with her than he might have otherwise liked.
"Hey Poochyena, are you up for a checkup? Al suggested it just to make sure everything is alright," I asked when there was a lull in Poochyena and Shadow's indirect conversation. She looked up at me and gave a somewhat hesitant nod. I realized that she probably didn't know what that meant so I assured, "It'll be fine. Peren, do you mind sealing up the base while we're gone?"
Poochyena curiously watched Peren as he used Secret Power on the tree again while I decided to return the rest of my Pokemon for the trek to the Pokemon Center. When both tasks were finished, we started making our way through Aitkin. While both Pokemon seemed fine with the temperature, I couldn't help but occasionally shiver as we walked.
Partially to distract myself from the cold, I asked, "So Poochyena, do you want a nickname?" When she looked up and tilted her head slightly, I added, "All of my Pokemon have nicknames, so Peren here is Peren instead of Deerling."
That earned an instant nod from her so I hummed softly as I tried to think of some options. The first one that came to mind was Artemis since she was a hunter, but that seemed like it might be in poor taste. There was also the dog aspect, but nothing was coming to mind there. The last theme that I could think of was the ice typing that she would get upon evolving, but most of the associated things were too dainty to fit, like snow and crystal.
I was still trying and failing to come up with a good name when we reached the Pokemon Center's front entrance. Poochyena was uncertain about entering a building for the first time but surprisingly Peren said something that convinced her into going in. I sighed in contentment from the rush of warm air that we were met with after going through the Center's double doors. The lobby was completely empty apart from the one nurse behind the desk who smiled at me as we entered. "Thomas! I didn't know you were back in town, it's good to see you again."
"Just got back in town yesterday," I said with a smile of my own. Given the small size of Aitkin, there were only a few nurses that worked at the Pokemon Center, so I'd gotten to know them somewhat while I'd been working with Al. I'd managed to overhear most of their real names during that time, but they all insisted that I call them Joy while they were on duty.
"Hello to you too Peren. And I see you've got a new friend as well."
"Yeah, I just caught her this morning and Al suggested we come in for a checkup." As we talked, Poochyena's head swiveled back and forth between the two of us.
Joy practically beamed at me and Poochyena. "Congratulations! That's a great idea. It's not uncommon for wild Pokemon to have minor health problems and it's good to clear those up as soon as possible with a healing machine."
"Thanks," I said, and started making my way over to one of the machines as she returned her attention to her computer. When we reached it, I crouched down in front of Poochyena. "I'm going to put you back in your Pokeball and use this to make sure that you're healthy." I lightly tapped the healing machine as I spoke. Poochyena briefly looked down at the floor, then back up at me and nodded. Unlike her previous moments of hesitation, I wasn't sure what that meant until I remembered what I'd seen in the vision.
There wasn't anything that I could do about what had happened to her pack now, so I pushed the thought out of my mind and returned Poochyena. When I placed her ball on top of the healing machine, her picture appeared on the display as usual. However, after only a few seconds there was a loud beep as the display updated to show a message telling me to bring Poochyena to a nurse immediately. I stared at the unfamiliar alert for several seconds before snatching up the Pokeball and turning toward the front desk, only to find that Joy was already hurrying over to me.
I started to explain, but she cut me off. "I heard. I'll take Poochyena to the back right away so we can find out what's wrong." I was still thrown off balance by the abruptness of the whole thing, so it took me a moment before I nodded and held out the ball for her. She took the Pokeball and was about to turn back to the front desk, but paused and said, "We'll let you know as soon as we find out what it is." With that, she rushed off to the back of the Center, leaving Peren and me alone in the lobby.
"Do you know what it might be?" I asked Peren, slightly stunned. He shook his head, so I decided it had to be something that either Poochyena had omitted from her story, or else she was unaware of her own health issue. I almost hoped that it was the former since the latter could be particularly bad, especially given how urgent it had seemed. With nothing to do except wait, I lowered myself into one of the chairs next to the front desk. Peren stayed standing next to me, occasionally nudging my arm reassuringly.
When Joy still hadn't come back after ten minutes, I opened the notes app on my Poryphone in order to have something to do and stop myself from thinking about worst-case scenarios. All of my other Pokemon had notes devoted to them and I pressed the button to add a new one for Poochyena. Since I hadn't been able to give her a nickname yet, I left the title blank and moved on down into the note contents.
I ran into a slight problem right away, given that I usually filled out the top section with the moves that they already knew. I put down Tackle, Bite, and Growl since they seemed like safe bets before moving down to a lower section to list planned moves, which was the primary purpose of the notes anyway. I didn't even need to think before I added Ice Fang; the move was ingrained in my head as being synonymous with Minnesotan Mightyena since it was the first move I'd seen after coming to the Pokemon world.
Crunch and Feint Attack were another pair of easy additions, as well as Thunder Fang. I skipped over Fire Fang since I was fairly sure that she wouldn't be able to learn that one like Nin had. Even though she might already know them, I put down Howl and Sand Attack in the future section in order to keep my notes accurate. Hail got entered with a question mark next to it due to its negative synergy with the rest of my team. Ice Shard was another questionable one since I wasn't sure how good Mightyena were at producing ice.
I was still engrossed in my notes when Joy finally reentered the lobby, making me realize that I had no idea how much time had passed. She had a serious expression, making me even more unnerved about the situation. "We found a foreign object in your Poochyena's stomach," she bluntly informed me. "While it doesn't appear to be causing any serious harm, we still want to operate immediately to ensure that doesn't change."
I stared blankly at her for a couple of seconds. "She'll be alright, right?" Even as I said it, I knew that she had just said it wasn't harming Poochyena, but my mind couldn't quite keep up. Peren nudged against me and I gave him a thankful glance before raptly returning my attention to the nurse.
Her expression softened slightly. "She'll be fine. She'll need time to recover afterward, but we have no reason to think she won't make a full recovery. Would you like to see her first?"
It had been less than a day since I'd met Poochyena so I had no idea what I could do or say to her. However, my own uncertainty reminded me how nervous she'd been about entering the Center and I wasn't about to let her go into an operation without any reassurances.
Peren and I followed Joy to the back of the Center and into a room where Poochyena was laying on a small bed. She looked a bit out of it, so I figured that they must have given her some sort of tranquilizer already. When I reached her bed, I started to gently stroke her head, saying, "You're going to be alright. They're going to take good care of you." She whined softly and I did my best to give her a reassuring smile. I was struck by sudden inspiration as I pet her and asked, "What do you think of the name Winter?" Poochyena narrowed her eyes like she was trying to concentrate, so I quickly said, "You can let me know when you've woken up."
We stayed there until one of the nurses told me that they were ready to get started. After I told Poochyena that we would see her soon, Peren and I returned to the lobby to wait. I texted Al to let him know what was going on and he told me to let him know if I needed anything. For several hours we sat there without any indication of how it was going. I did my best to keep myself busy with my notes, but I kept getting distracted by every little noise.
Finally, one of the nurses reentered the lobby and I jumped to my feet when she started walking toward me. She gave me a comforting smile and said, "The operation was a complete success. She'll make a full recovery after a few days of rest."
I immediately breathed a sigh of relief and Peren relaxed at my side. "What was the problem?" I asked after I'd had a moment to process.
Joy reached into one of the pouches in her apron and pulled out a light gray rock that was approximately an inch wide and a few inches long, holding it out for me to take. Confused, I accepted it and turned it over, then looked back up at her. "It's an Everstone," she explained, answering my unasked question. "To tell you the truth, none of us had ever heard of a wild Pokemon ingesting one before, so if we hadn't verified that you had just caught Poochyena, we would be having a very different conversation."
I nodded absently as I looked back down at the Everstone in my hand, not fully listening. Instead, I recalled a conversation that I'd had with Al months ago and felt like I had a very good idea as to why she would have swallowed it. I shook my head to snap myself out of it and held the Everstone back out to Joy, but she told me I could keep it. It felt a little odd to hold onto something that had been hurting Poochyena, but I didn't argue and slipped it into my pocket to deal with later.
"Can we visit her?"
She hummed thoughtfully for a second, then relented. "Alright. But just the two of you, and you need to stay quiet."
"Thank you," I quickly said before she could change her mind, and we followed her back to the same room as before. Poochyena looked even more out of it than before, but she still trained her eyes on me the moment that we entered the room.
"Hey Poochyena, how are you feeling?" I quietly asked. She shook her head, instantly bringing back my worry. "What's wrong, are you in pain?" Oddly, she shook her head again, leaving me relieved but also confused. A thought occurred to me and I slowly spoke up again. "How are you doing, Winter?"
Winter answered by opening her mouth in a small smile, which I was more than happy to return.
A/N: Thanks to Star (quarknova on this site) for betaing. Next up is Chapter 31: Changing of the Seasons
