The next morning Rowan was sat outside on the bench waiting for Jake. "Sorry I'm late" He puffed running through the pokemon sliding doors. "No worries" Rowan said. "You all ready to go?" Jake nodded. They set off north to the Viridian forest. An hour later they had reached the outskirts of the forest. Rowan released Cubone and Pidgey from their pokeballs. Cubone on his left and Pidgey perched on his right shoulder. "Do you have any pokemon with you?" Rowan asked. Jake nodded but looked a little uncomfortable. Rowan noticed his unease. "Everything ok?". "Yes" Jake replied quietly. "I suppose you can be trusted" Rowan looked at him bewildered. Jake pulled out a pokeball and released a small red pokemon with a flame on it's tail. "Ohh wow" Rowan gasped. It was a Charmander. He pulled out his pokedex and scanned it "Charmander the flame tailed pokemon, Charmander live in groups in rocky mountains practicing their fire techniques until they evolve into the more solitary Charmeleon" Jake smiled "He was a gift from the University, when I said I was going to take a year out to do some research they gave him to me."
Rowan knew just how rare they were, and were only given in exceptional circumstances. He also understood Jake's hesitance. Charmander would be a great prize for any poachers. Cubone walked up to the small lizard pokemon and held out its hand smiling. Charmander took it and smiled its tail growing brighter and swishing from side to side. "That's awesome" Rowan said "Come on lets get going we can get some battle practice in before we reach the gym. Jake nodded and smiled. With their pokemon at their sides they entered the forest.
The first few days were the same. A lot of bug catchers resided in the forests. Rowan made quick work of their bug pokemon with Pidgey and Cubone, and even Jake entered a few battles even though he protested he wasn't into battling. "You need to get stronger, Rowan replied to him on the 3rd morning" "If you want to protect yourself and your partner" Jake nodded. They broke camp and carried on. They were chatting about the pro's and cons of dragon types now the fairy type had been discovered when Jake stopped mid-sentence. "Look up there!" He cried. Jake looked up towards the tree's but couldn't see anything special. "What am I supposed to be looking at" He asked. Jake made his way over to a particularly large oak tree. "You see up there in the nook between that branch and the trunk. That's blood moss" Rowan looked up and saw what Jake was taking about. It was red and spongy looking about the size of both is hands spread out. "It's a really good cure for fever's" Jake said. It was quite high up in the tree. "Can you give me a boost?" Rowan cupped his hands together and Jake place a foot in them. "On the count of 3 ready? 1, 2, 3!" Rowan pulled up hard and Jake grabbed onto the lowest branch. Charmander stood at the bottom of the tree looking fretful. "Don't worry Charmander I'll be fine" Rowan was impressed as Jake reached the branch in a matter of minutes and pulled out a jar and a knife. He carefully cut around the moss and placed it in the jar. Once he was finished, he called out. "I'm coming back down now."
He had just reached the lowest branch and was sat on it ready to jump when something dropped onto his head. Jake shouted and lost his balance and tumbled out of the tree. Rowan and Charmander ran over to make sure he wasn't hurt. He stood up and brushed himself off. To the right of him was a Weedle. It looked slightly dazed. Rowan laughed "It was the Weedle that fell on you" Charmander looked at the small bug pokemon and snorted out some flames. The Weedle looked at Charmander and instead of fleeing, charged poison leaking from it's barb. Charmander jumped out of the way narrowly missing its barb. "Charmander ember" Jake shouted. Charmander reared its head back and shot out a stream of embers that hit the Weedle's tail. Weedle cried and rolled around to put the flames out, then shot a string of web at Charmander. It hit his mouth and rapped around tying it shut. Furious Charmander ran towards the Weedle its claws growing large and hit it with a scratch attack knocking it unconscious. Rowan let out a whoop. "Well done Jake! Quick get a pokeball" Jake looked slightly stunned but quickly pulled a pokeball from his pocket and tossed it at the Weedle. The Weedle was sucked into the ball and rocked back and forwards a few times before clicking. "I caught a pokemon" He said. "I caught a pokemon!" He said loudly jumping up and down.
Charmander with the help of Pidgey had managed to get the sticky web off his face and jumped into Jake's arms. Jake spun Charmander around "we have a new friend buddy!" Charmander smiled. Cubone and Pidgey shouted out calls of happiness too. Jake walked over to the pokeball and picked it up. Rowan handed him a potion. All three pokemon stood by their trainers as Jake released the Weedle. It blinked slowly and then reared it's head ready to attack again. Cubone growled, Pidgey cawed and Charmander's flame grew larger. The Weedle stopped. It realised it was outnumbered and lay there glaring at them. Jake knelt to the Weedle. "Here let me spray you with this it will make you feel much better. Weedle looked at him curiously before nodding. Jake sprayed the area's where he had been burnt. "You know I have caught you and that makes me your trainer, would you like to come on a journey with us?" Weedle looked at the other pokemon. Charmander smiled and Cubone and Pidgey made low grunting noises of approval. Weedle nodded slowly. "Well then that's settled" He said pleased. He offered his hand to the Weedle. Weedle looked at it before crawling onto his hand and up his arm to his shoulder. Jake rubbed his head avoiding the poisonous barb. "Shall we head off?" Jake asked.
"What would you have done if Weedle had said she didn't want to travel with you" Rowan asked as they sat around the camp fire that night. Jake finished his mouthful of soup looking over at Weedle before answering. "I'd have released her" Rowan nodded thoughtful.
The bond between trainer and pokemon was special. Even if you caught them you may not be compatible. Rowan had heard stories from his mother of trainers who had caught pokemon and their temperaments were so different that they had gone their separate ways. Rowan hoped that it wouldn't happen to him. He was sure he may have issues with one or two of his pokemon. That was how you both learned from each other and grew. He prodded the dying embers adding more wood to the fire to boil some tea. It was much easier making a fire with Jake. Charmander touched his tail to the dry kindling and it went up quickly.
Pidgey was sat on a branch above them and Cubone was lay down next to him. "What made you want to become a pokemon doctor?" Jake put down his empty bowl of soup and rubbed the sleeping Charmander's head. "My grandmother was a healer, she brought me up. Her and her Machop used to take care of injured pokemon and I used to help. She taught me about all the different plants that could be used in medicine." When I was accepted into the university you should have seen her she was so proud"
"What made you want to become a pokemon master?" Rowan smiled "I want to be able to protect everyone I care about. My mum was in the war and all those stories, it made me want to become the best so I could protect everyone I love" Jake just nodded.
Cubone pulled on his arm for his attention. "What's up buddy?" He asked Cubone walked over to his pack and pointed. "What's he doing?" Jake asked. Rowan laughed "I think I know what he wants" Rowan stood up and grabbed his battered copy of the Eevee and sat down again. Cubone made a happy gurgling noise and jumped onto his lap. Jake laughed. Rowan looked a little embarrassed. "He likes me to read to him." Pidgey swooped down and sat on his shoulder. "And she does too." "By all means" Jake replied getting comfortable Charmader curled up next to him and Weedle stretched out across his lap "Carry on." Rowan opened the book and picked up where they had left off.
The next day Rowan woke early. He called Cubone and Pidgey to him softly before wandering a little ways from the camp. He pulled out his pokedex and call Pidgey to him first. "How do you feel about trying to learn a new move today?" Pidgey chirped loudly and puffed up her chest. He pulled up the video and showed her the steel wing move. Try using it on that old rotting branch over there. She flew up to a branch took aim and flew to the rotting stump. Rowan watched her try a few times before he went over to Cubone. "I want you to learn focus energy" He had read up on the move and as well as channelling all its energy, it increased the Pokémon's defence whilst it was storing it. Cubone saluted and started practicing it straight away. After an hours hard training he decided to call it time. Cubone had mastered focus energy, he tensed and white light shone around him. Pidgey on the other hand was struggling. It was an extremely advanced move for a Pidgey. You ready to go Pidgey" He called up to her. She was panting heavily. She flapped her wings and puffed up her chest. She swooped down one more time aiming for the rotten log. A slight shimmer formed on her wings. She hit the log then swooped round to land on his shoulder. Rowan walked over to the log and inspected it. A shallow gash in the log where Pidgey had hit it. "Well done Pidge" he said softly. She cooed panting heavily. They walked back to the campsite where Jake was making breakfast.
"Your up early" Jake commented as he walked into the clearing. "Just getting in a bit of training before we reach Pewter, we can't be far from the end of the forest" "I reckon another two days" Jake said placing hot bread rolls and fruit on a plate for him. He quickly filled the bowls he used for his pokemon with pokemon food and berries before grabbing his breakfast and wolfing it down.
After breakfast they packed up quickly getting rid of any trace they had been there and headed off again. Jake thought back on the training this morning. Both his pokemon had worked extremely hard and he was very proud of them. They had both been growing stronger. Pidgey's endurance had improve a lot as well as her accuracy and speed. As her defence was quite low she would need any advantage she could get. He hoped when she evolved her stats would average out a bit more. Cubone was blossoming. There was no other word for it. He loved to battle and he took great pride in winning. They had only lost two battles since they had begun traveling. One to a guy with a Pincer and the other to a girl with a strange looking brown and stripped pokemon from Johto called a Furret.
They had just finished lunch when two girls stumbled across their picnic area. "Hi there" The tall girl with a blonde ponytail said. Jake went beetroot red. "Hi" Rowan replied. "Are you guys up for a double battle. The blonde girl said smiling. Rowan looked at Jake and nodded. "You bet!"
They took ten long strides from each other and turned around to mark the battle field. "I'm Martha and this here is Lizzy" She called out pointing at the brunette girl. She waved shyly. "I'm Rowan and this here is Jake" "One pokemon each? Losers are when both pokemon on each team are unable to battle." Martha called out. "Sounds good" "you ready for this" Rowan murmured to Jake. "S-s-ure" he stammered.
Jake called Cubone, "Ok buddy your up" Cubone saluted and ran in front of him. Jake took a deep breath calming himself before releasing Weedle. Weedle had already become very fond of him. He nuzzled Jakes leg avoiding pricking him with his barb. "You ready to battle?" Jake asked him. Weedle grunted and charged onto the battle field giving Cubone a nod. Martha and Lizzy both tossed their pokeball's up into the air. In front of Lizzy was a Rattata and in front of Martha a rocky pokemon with arms. Geodude! Rowan thought. This would be good practice for Pewter. "Are you ok to take on Rattata he said to Jake. "Yep" His mouth in a determined grin. "Ladies first" Jake called out, his mum had raised him properly after all. Martha wasted no time "Geodude use Defence curl then rock throw at Cubone. "Ratatta use quick attack on Weedle." Geodude curled itself into a ball for a moment emitting a soft blue light before tearing chunks of the ground up and throwing them towards Cubone.
"Cubone use dig" Rowan called out. "Weedle use poison sting" Cubone dug quickly into the ground managing to avoid the lumps of stone and dirt being thrown at him. Weedle wasn't so lucky. Rattata appeared before her and hit her knocking her side ways. "Use string shot" Jake shouted quickly. Good thinking Rowan thought. Weedle spat the sticky web at Ratatta coating its feet. Now use poison sting" "Use quick attack to get out the way Lizzy shouted. But Rattata's front legs were too entangled in the web for it to react. Weedle hit it in the side with it's poisonous barb pumping its poison. Now it's my turn Rowan thought. "Cubone use dig" Geodude looked around warily. Cubone jumped out of the ground behind Geodude and hit it with his bone club. Geodude shook its head. It was still moving but a bit more slowly now after taking damage from the super effective move. Rattata meanwhile had managed to chew through the sticky web, but the poison was taking it's toll.
"Rattata use quick attack then follow it up with tackle." Rattata followed the moves it had been given and hit Weedle. "No" Jake called out. "Use poison sting" Weddle managed to flip around in the air and fire a dozen thin poisioned needles at the Ratatta. The Rattata was unable to dodge them as it had spent most of its energy in the last quick attack and took the full brunt of them. It collapsed on the ground and didn't move. "Rattata no!" Lizzy called out. "Time to finish this" Rowan said. "Use bonemerang Cubone and then headbutt if it gets back up" Cubone threw his bone club at Geodude. "Geodude block it" Geodude crossed its arms as the club hit it square on. Cubone caught his club in mid-air and hit Geodude with his skull sending him into a tree knocked out. "We did it" Rowan called out elated to Jake. But Jake was preoccupied. He turned his attention to Weedle. It was shining brightly. A few moments later and the light began to subside. Where Weedle had been was a large yellow cocoon with black slits for eyes. "Weedle just evolved" Jake said slowly. He smiled and picked up the Kakuna "You evolved that's awesome" The Kakuna vibrated in his arms.
The two girls recalled their pokemon and walked over to them their hands out. "That was a good battle." Martha said Jake shook her hand. Jake shook Lizzy's hand and blushed furiously. He bent down to his pack and rummaged around before extracting a small glass vile with some paste. "Here" he gave the vial to Lizzy. "Rub this onto Rattata and it will help dispel the poison quicker." "Thank you!" she exclaimed. "Congratulations on your Weedle evolving" "Thanks" He said rubbing the back of his head.
Martha gave Jake a few 100 dollars for winning and Lizzy did the same with Jake. "It was fun battling you guys, I hope we get to battle again one day" "Sounds good" Rowan smiled. They swapped trainer information before they left so they could call each other if they were ever in a nearby area. "Good luck on your journey" Martha said tossing a wave over her shoulder before they disappeared further down the track.
That night after dinner Rowan pulled out the book and Cubone and Pidgey fluttered to their usual places. Jake was sitting opposite him rubbing wax onto Kakuna which he had said would help keep the shell hard and shiny. After reading a few pages both Pidgey and Cubone were fast asleep. "I'm gonna have an early night" he whispered to Jake. Jake just nodded "I'll sort the fire out." Jake picked up Cubone and placed him in the tent. Pidgey fluttered sleepily to the branch above as Rowan called out a good night and fell asleep immediately.