For those of who have followed this story, I appreciate you waiting. This next part was so long that I had to break it into two parts, so here's Part I!
Also, Hakins may have not caught any Pokemon yet, but as I've planned this story, I don't know what I want one of his Pokemon to be. I would love suggestions via PM from those of you who cared enough to read this far and see this message. It obviously can't be anything crazy (Legendaries, Mythicals, etc.), but I'd appreciate the help. Anyways, please enjoy!
Shortly after our conversation, we met back up with Sergei or Wakin, just in time to see Sergei take a handful of Poke Dollars and tuck them into the shorts pocket of the still unconscious Zook. Sergei looked up from his crouched position on the ground at Wakin, and the two shared a hearty laugh with each other. The man mountain gave us a wave as we approached.
"Hyello, you two," Sergei said, rising to his feet. "I must say, if I didn't know any better, I would've thought that our friend here got attacked by a group of Ursaring or something, ah? He's going to have these marks for awhile, by the looks of it."
Dustin and I, still facing Sergei, high fived each other.
Sergei smiled, and then turned to Wakin, pulling out a pair of keys from one of his saches. He tossed them to the wiry man, who placed them on his belt. Wakin gave me and Dustin a nod, and made his way back towards the stairs that led back to the port. I felt odd just leaving things at that with him, so I stepped forwards.
"Thanks for your help!" I said, my voice projecting through the lot.
Wakin stopped where he was, and turned back around to face me. He gave me a smile.
"I got paid; that's all there is to it, kid."
He turned back around and made his way down the stairs. I heard him say something to himself; it almost sounded like he mentioned needing a beer. Moments later, he was gone.
Sergei led us to the front of the truck; it had a step built in due to how high the driver's seat was off of the ground. Reaching into another sache, he pulled out a key, which he climbed up and placed into the passenger door the old-fashioned way.
The door swung open, and it looked about how I expected it would. Instead of two separate seats, there was a large single seat from wall-to-wall. A long window gave the passengers a view into the back of the vehicle. The truck's dashboard was cluttered with various machine parts that I didn't recognize, and his rear view mirror had an open pocket watch hanging from it. I was startled to see Trapinch already inside, sitting in the middle of the seat. I turned to Dustin, who smiled.
"Trapinch has learned her lesson today. There's plenty of space, so I thought that she might enjoy the road trip with us."
"Alright, so long as she can keep still," I replied, heaving a sigh and climbing into the truck.
Dustin followed shortly after me. Trapinch, seeing that I was right next to her, adjusted herself in an attempt to be on my lap. I tensed up, and tried nudging the Ant Pit Pokemon towards Dustin, who was closing the door of the truck. Feeling the legs of Trapinch, Dustin turned to face me, and rolled his eyes.
"Come on, Hakins! Trapinch just wants to be your friend. You're not giving her a fair chance!" Dustin said, pulling Trapinch over into his lap.
I scoffed.
"I wasn't aware that I was giving her a chance when I decided not to focus all of my attention on making sure that she didn't damage someone's bike, or dig a hole in the ground. Funny how that works."
Dustin gave me a look that signified that he thought that I was overreacting.
"Seriously? You know for a fact that Trapinch doesn't get the opportunity to be outside of the port very often." Dustin said, scratching Trapinch's head. "She'll be better next time; that's the important thing."
I bent over, putting my head in my hands and keeping my gaze on Dustin. I grimaced as the scraped skin on my back stung.
"Look," I said, shifting my position a tad. "All that I'm saying is that we're clearly gonna need to keep an eye on her. Until then, I've got some bruises to remind me why I'm gonna be a little harsh here."
Trapinch buried her head in Dustin's lap, clearly not pleased with what I had said. Dustin brushed some of his curls away from his eyes.
"It's ok," Dustin shot a look at me. "Hakins is just being a little bit petty, that's all. It's ok…"
I hit my hands against my lap.
"See what you just did there?!" I said. "That could've been all; we could've just let things be there, but you had to go and call me petty!"
"And let you just say some excessively mean nonsense and hurt Trapinch's feeling without consoling her?" Dustin retorted, now bristling too.
At this point, the door on the driver's side opened up, and Sergei pulled himself in. We were both too agitated to care, and continued our bickering. He gave each of us a look in turn, and then settled into the seat, turning the key in the ignition. The truck roared to life; it was clear that the titan had a pretty serious engine.
We pulled out of the lot, and began our drive on the lonely sandstone road, through the dunes of the Orre Desert. After it was clear that our arguing was getting nowhere, we had made a nonverbal agreement to stop. Dustin leaned against the car door, looking out the window. I fidgeted with the backpack at my feet. Once the truck hit the concrete part of the road, Sergei let out a chuckle.
"You two are definitely friends. This I know; random strangers don't argue like that. That tension that I feel right now: easy to get lost in, ah?"
Both me and Dustin turned our attention to Sergei.
"There were times when Salvator and I got so upset with each other that we could not even bear to lock eyes." Sergei continued. "Very ugly, yes. If only we knew that our strong reactions were rooted in care and trust back then, ah? Funny thing about people your age. You get very tense, yes, but do not spend a lot of time really getting to the bottom of why."
Dustin and I exchanged a look.
"Well, you think you figure out why, when in reality you've just found another reason to stay feeling angry. Got to boil those things down, and see what's left, ah?"
The man mountain shot a look at both of us before returning his attention to the road. It was clear from his more focused expressions that he was trying his best to make sure that what he was saying was making sense to us.
"Salvator was always better at these larger theme things. But look; all I'm saying is that you two wouldn't be so frustrated with each other right now if you didn't believe that the other person was smart enough to understand your point of view. So if we all know this bit of information, then we can make a choice here, yes? We could bicker senselessly and try and defend ourselves to no end, or maybe we could step into the other's shoes, and look at how we might be affecting things, ah? It is a big world, and we are certainly not at the center of it."
A moment of silence passed in the truck. I fidgeted with my hands. Sergei was right. I wouldn't have been so bothered by the Trapinch situation still if I didn't think as highly of Dustin as I did. And refusing to apologize just because it might be awkward was ridiculous too. It wasn't that big of a deal anyways.
I turned to Dustin.
"I'm sorry. I'll have more faith in Trapinch. We'll get better. I'll get better"
I gave Trapinch a scratch under the chin, and she rubbed her jaw against my arm. Dustin smiled.
"And we'll be more careful in the future," Dustin said. "I'm sorry too."
I turned to see another charming smile on Sergei's face.
"I wish that I could patch things up with Salvator like that," Sergei said, the truck navigating a bumpier patch with gusto. "But for a guy who's all brain, he spends an awful lot of time not listening to people. Heh, not as bad as he used to be, though…"
I raised an eyebrow.
"What did he used to be?" I asked.
"I was hoping you'd ask, chuvak." Sergei replied, looking over to give us a big smile.
As he began to tell the stories of their youth, I looked over at Dustin. His focus was once again directed out the window, into the desert beyond. He seemed to have a lot on his mind, but I figured that he wouldn't feel very comfortable talking about it with Sergei, so I decided to hold off on talking with him about it until later.
"...and there we were: rocks tumbling from high above. We both realized that we'd soon be buried alive. We fight through the debris, buildings getting smashed to pieces all around us. I was holding the manifest on Shadow Pokemon Development, but Salvator stops me as we get to the lift. He says he needs to find his nice coat, jacket, whatever - I always forget the word - and the man runs back to go grab it! Into the rocks!"
Almost an hour had passed in the truck. Sergei was nearing the end of his story, which was detailing the end of his adventures in the Under with Salvator. Whatever thoughts had troubled Dustin were clearly less important now, as he too listened to the story intently. We all shared a laugh as we heard him tell us about Salvator's manic attachment to his duster.
I looked out the window. The scenery was quite different now. Thick ferns surrounded us on either side, while tall pines towered over us. The afternoon sun still shone brightly overhead, making me shift uncomfortably in my middle seat as I periodically wiped my face with a handkerchief. Trapinch had her head out the passenger window, Dustin securing the Pokemon to make sure that she didn't tumble out.
Sergei finally took notice of my discomfort, and tapped a compartment directly in front of me that was on the dashboard. I pulled the handle, and I was immediately blasted with a wave of cold air. It was a freezer compartment. I let out a pleasant "ah", and took a wrapped ice pack from the inside, closing it afterwards. I placed the pack against my neck, my entire body loosening up from the reprieve.
Sergei let out a chuckle.
"This is definitely a finicky area in terms of heat. We're on the border between the desert to our right, and the dense Agate Forest on the left. Just close enough to the desert to get all of the warm weather, of course, but bustling with life as well."
Dustin tilted his head at Sergei.
"How are the trees doing so well? I doubt it rains much in this area."
"Well, this is certainly no natural feat," Sergei said. "As I'm sure both of you know, this region has a very close relationship with the Pokemon Celebi."
"Yeah. So is Celebi is why more Pokemon are starting to appear in the region?" I asked.
"Exactly," Sergei replied, giving me a pat on the shoulder. "The people of Orre have a sort of deal with Celebi. We mine a particular ore to construct these intricate pillars called Relic Stones. In return, Celebi makes plant life grow where natural science has deemed it impossible.."
Sergei looked out his window. I could see the incline of the hills through the treeline.
"Agate was the first town to pay tribute to Celebi with a Relic Stone. That one's been there for so long that an entire ecosystem has been created over mountains that were once desolate. Orre is better off because of Celebi, and even the lowlives here know not to mess with that Pokemon." Sergei said.
At him saying that, I remembered something. I reached into my backpack, taking out my Pokedex. I tapped Dustin's shoulder, and placed it in his hands once he turned around. He looked at me in surprise.
"Hakins, are you giving this to me?" he asked, genuinely confused.
I smiled, and nodded.
"Look, you clearly know more about Pokemon than me as is," I said. "And I don't see myself pulling this thing out the moment that I see new Pokemon at the Oasis. I think that this is more your thing. You can tell me what we see if it boils down to that."
Dustin grinned from ear to ear, and turned his attention to the Pokedex. Once the interface popped up, he began scrolling through. Trapinch, curious as to the brief commotion inside, was now also intently focused on the Pokemon being showcased. I leaned back in my seat, desperate to get every bit of cold out of the ice pack on my neck.
"It sounds to me like you don't know what Pokemon to catch, chuvak. Am I wrong in assuming this?" Sergei said, shooting a look at me.
"Yeah, I don't know enough Pokemon to have an exact one in mind," I replied, tucking my backpack in between my legs once again. "How did you know which one that you wanted? You and Golem seem like a perfect fit for one another."
Sergei shrugged.
"We are comrades for life, yes. I'm lucky to have him by my side. If my experience means anything to you, Hakins, I think you'll know the one for you. Like a...uhh..."
Sergei took a moment, clearly forgetting whatever English metaphor he was trying to use momentarily. His eyes lit up quickly after, however.
"A gut feeling. Yes, that's the one! Gut feeling! I was drawn to Golem because I had a gut feeling that we could make a fantastic duo. Now, Golem and I were not always the perfect team, but like I said earlier, with the boiling down, we came to trust and respect one another, and I think we've both become better for it."
Sergei began navigating a winding turn.
"It is very complicated, so trust your judgement, ah? Same goes for you, Dustin."
Dustin nodded, but was clearly absorbed in studying Pokemon from the Hoenn region.
"I'll take your word for it," I replied. "So how did you and Golem meet in the first place?"
Sergei let out a bellowing laugh.
"That is a story so long and full of twists and turns that we might not even have enough time on this long truck ride, chuvak. I am happy to tell you it in time, though. When you start to get bored of my less exciting stories."
"We'll see about that." I replied, trying to recline back on my spot in the middle. However, I once again felt the sting of the open cuts on my back, causing me to wince. It was clear that this scrape was a little worse than I had previously thought.
"Do you have medical supplies in the back, Sergei?" I asked. "I got a little banged up in our encounter with Zook."
"Yeah, and if it wasn't for Hakins getting his shit pushed in, I might have never gotten away." Dustin added, eyes still scanning the entries in the Pokedex but a facetious smile on his face.
I rolled my eyes, trying desperately to stem my laughter at the comment.
"It's in a marked crate in the back. If you need some assistance, let me know." Sergei said.
"Great. I'll be quick, promise. Where can we pull over?" I asked.
Sergei let out a hearty laugh.
"You are doing wonders for my ego today, chuvak! Scoot over to your friend's side." Sergei said, keeping his eyes on the road.
I obliged, sneaking an elbow into Dustin's side as I did so. He let out an ouch, but seemed to realize what it was for.
"Fair…" he muttered, putting the Pokedex away and taking a moment to stretch his neck.
Sergei took his left hand off of the steering wheel, reaching over to a lever near his car door window. It was clear from its appearance that it was makeshift, as the handle sort of jutted out unevenly. Nonetheless, he pulled it down, and the section of the benchlike seat that I had been sitting in launched forwards, revealed a space behind it that led into the back section of the truck. As I wondered how in the hell crawling to the back of the truck was practical, a switch clicked, and the window panel behind the middle seat folded up, now giving me about a five foot tall entryway into the back.
I looked back towards the man mountain in surprise.
"As I said on the boat ride, chuvak. I put all my eggs in two very big baskets." Sergei said. "Go and get what you need, and I'll be sure to blow your mind again later, ah?"
I nodded, ducking my head under the new entryway and stepping into the back of the truck. As I searched for the right crate, I felt a powerful feeling swelling within me.
Here I am, on a moving titan of a truck, bound for an oasis I've never seen, I thought to myself. I never could've known when we moved to Citadark Isle that it would've given me this chance to be more a Pokemon Trainer than I could ever have been alone.
I snapped out of my own thoughts when I located the right crate, with the classic medical symbol stamped on it. I opened it up, and grabbed some gauze and disinfectant from their respective packages. I raised an eyebrow as I saw a stitching kit that was almost entirely used up, and closed the lid.
"Do you have a mirror of any kind around here?" I asked somewhat loudly.
"Top drawer of the dresser!" Sergei called out from the driver's seat.
Once I grabbed the mirror, and slid the fine wooden drawer closed, I sat down on the neighboring sofa, unsurprised to find that it was stiff and uneven. I pulled my shirt up, and got to work, holding my mirror in an off hand while the other applied the disinfectant and gauze.
After I was done, I began to make my way back to the front when something caught my eye to my left. Upon looking over, I saw a small black and white photo taped to one of the metal bars holding the tarp above my head. It was easy to miss, since it was somewhat hidden behind two side-by-side crates. Part of me wanted to just ignore it, and return to the front; even with the fans running stray streaks of blazing sunlight were shooting through small holes in the roof, causing me to once again work up a sweat. My curiosity got the better of me, however, and I peeked behind the crate to get a better view.
The photo showed a couple dozen men smiling towards the lens, a hollowed out section of a mountain behind them. Many of them were posing with various mining equipment, from pickaxes to drills, their faces dirty from some sort of mineral or sediment. As my eyes scanned across the plethora of faces, one particular person caught my eye. The young man wasn't sporting a beard, or any sort of ragged clothing, but the piercing eyes and charming smile belonged to Sergei. The way he draped his arms over the other men in the photo told me that he was incredibly close with them. Once I looked closer at the photo, however, I noticed that there was a series of shoddily built houses, and that the smiling men did seem rather thin. There was clearly snowfall at the time of the photo as well, so I couldn't understand why the men weren't wearing coats…
"There are clasps to secure the gauze if you're having trouble back there, chuvak!"
Sergei's voice returned my focus to the present. I turned to look up at the driver's seat, and saw Dustin looking back at me, his head tilted slightly. He looked like he was about to say something, but I put my finger to my lips, shaking my head. He seemed to understand the message, and turned back around towards the expanse of road ahead.
"It's holding Sergei! I'm heading back up now."
I quickly stretched my legs, and then ducked back under the entryway, sliding over to Dustin's side. Sergei pulled the lever behind me, and the hatch to the back shut. Once my seat locked back into place, I took my place back in my seat. Trapinch had fallen asleep at some point during my patchup, and was now safely secured under Dustin's arm. Sergei gave me a look of concern.
"Let me look at that later. Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to cuts and scrapes."
I nodded. Thinking about it more, trusting this man mountain was so natural to me. I could feel genuine kindness and good-spirited intent in the way he carried himself.
"It certainly wouldn't hurt." I replied.
Dustin gave me a questioning look, and I mouthed later to him in response. He nodded, and we turned our attention to the scenery. We were now away from the border between wasteland and forest, now better shaded by tall trees streaked with ivy and blossoming flowers. The forest floor was filled with ferns, and I started to spot some smaller Bug type Pokemon darting along the brush. Anyone who wasn't familiar with Orre would think that the entire region must be lush and verdant. Even I had to consciously remind myself that my quest to catch a Pokemon would land in the middle of the desert.
Dustin nudged me, and I turned to see him opening an application on his tablet.
"Let's play some Pissed Pidgeys," he said. "I haven't gone too much further since we last played together. Hell, it's probably been so long that our data is old or something. Wanna dive in anyways?"
"Sounds good to me!" I replied.
We each took a side of the tablet, and began discussing strategies, as Sergei's mighty truck continued its trek through the forested hills.
Many more hours had passed, and the sun was well on its way down in its descent below the horizon. Despite our best efforts to stay engaged on the game, both me and Dustin could feel our eyes growing tired. My head felt heavier from so much time spent staring at the tablet, and I felt a little queasy from keeping my focus on the game while the truck bumped along the road. Trapinch had been returned to its Poke Ball, while Sergei stayed focused on the drive ahead.
"We'll set up camp before nightfall." Sergei said. "We're almost out of the forest, so we'll find a good spot once we can see our surroundings a bit better."
"Why not stick around here?" Dustin asked, echoing my thoughts exactly. "Wouldn't we have more shelter in the forest?"
Sergei shook his head.
"Sure, but so would our potential threats. It makes me happy to see that children can grow up in Orre safe from the less...ehr...joyful realities of the region, but danger is everywhere out here. We'll be safest if we can see our surroundings on all sides."
Dustin and I were silent for a moment. The prospect of being attacked in the night hadn't occurred to either of us. Sergei chuckled.
"Relax, relax! We are extra careful no matter what. Your families lock their doors, yes?"
We nodded, comically in sync at this point.
"You don't lock your doors because someone's breaking in every night, ah? Just the same here, gospoda! We do this just in case. Also why I'm here. I don't take kindly to intruders, either."
Sergei gave us what was quickly becoming a textbook smile, and pointed out in the horizon. I looked out to where he was pointing, and sure enough, the trees were quickly thinning, and the wide expanse of dunes was visible beyond the treeline. Sergei's truck began to slow down, and the man mountain turned back to us.
"We've taken a slightly different path than I normally do, so we will have to start camp from scratch. As we will likely be doing this at least a couple of more times, it's important to know the steps here."
Sergei reached to his belt containing his Poke Balls, and grabbed one of them.
"This starts with Golem. The sand dunes are no place to park a truck of this stature, so we have to change the earth a bit to have a good enough space to get set up. My Comrade knows the drill here."
Sergei pushed the window pane that allowed the hatch to become an entryway up, and reached his arm through it, Poke Ball in hand. He activated it, and Golem materialized in the back of the truck. Sergei then pressed another button, this one behind his sun visor. I heard a low mechanical bleet, and turned to see the lower ramp of the truck coming down. Golem seemed to know what this meant, and entered ball form, rolling out of the truck like a scuba diver out of a boat. Sergei let go of the button before pressing it again, and as the ramp began its ascent back into its closed position, Golem came zipping by Dustin's window.
While I was taken aback by how smooth and quick a Pokemon as bulky as Golem was, Dustin was still. I nudged him a bit to no avail. Feeling more determined, I clapped my hands together as loudly as I could, causing Dustin to almost jump in his seat. His eyes darted around anxiously, landing on me as the culprit behind the disturbance.
"You alright man?" I asked.
"Yeah, yeah." Dustin said between a yawn. "Sorry about that. So used to being rushed to bed early."
I checked my phone.
"Dustin, it's barely past 7!"
"I'll get better in time, don't worry." he replied, scratching his head absentmindedly.
A small tremor shook the truck, and by the chuckle from Sergei, I assumed it must be Golem's doing. Sure enough, a minute later, the truck was pulling into a large flat space on the edge of the desert. While the area was made up of sand, our large plateau like-formation was entirely stone; Golem standing proudly next to the sudden platform said it all. The hum of the engine that had practically become white noise to me died out, leaving in its wake a deep silence. Sergei turned the key out of the ignition, and turned back to us again.
"I have tents and necessary equipment for starting a campfire. I know you both must be hungry, but we'll be worse for wear if we aren't all set up by dark. I'll walk you through how to get things situated, so that the next time we do this, you know exactly what to do, and we can maximize daylight."
I nodded, and Dustin reached for the door handle. Sergei quickly looked us over, however, and pulled the lever for the hatch.
"It's going to be quite cold out there, gospoda. I'd grab some warmer clothes before you go. Desert nights can be hard for newcomers."
With that, Sergei exited out the driver side door, the massive truck staying upright where most would've rocked under the weight of the man mountain.
I ducked my head under the entryway, Dustin close behind me. The cold, despite slightly mitigated by the interior of the truck, was gnawing. I bit down hard to stop my teeth from chattering as we went over to the crate with our stuff in it. After releasing the latches, I dug around almost frantically, not used to cold like this from my time on Citadark.
I first found Dustin's duffel, passing it to him behind me without looking back. While the lower light from the setting sun was making visibility near to impossible, a bright ray shone into the box, as Dustin had activated the flashlight on his phone.
Getting our heavier outerwear on as quickly as possible, we moved towards the back of the truck, just in time to see the ramp starting to lower. Sergei gave us a wave, a lit cigar stuck out like a reed in a Treecko's mouth. As soon as the ramp touched down, he stormed up it. Wanting to be as helpful as possible, we followed his lead and got to work.
By the time we had everything set up, both Dustin and I were exhausted, and the moon was beginning its course through the night sky. Golem had been returned into his Poke Ball, so it was just the three of us, gathered around a roaring campfire. We were all cross-legged on the smooth ground, on exotically patterned cushions with tassels along the edges. Sergei was tending to a pot suspended over the flames, reheating some canned chili. Dustin and I were sat across from him, bundled up in blankets, and staring anxiously at the food in the pot.
The work had been tough, particularly using a manual drill to bore holes for pitching the tent. But the quiet resolve with which Sergei partook in the manual labor was motivating. As I watched the mixture start to bubble in the fire, I realized that I was actually in a conversational mood.
"Dustin, how long has it been since you've been away from your parents like this?" I asked.
Dustin looked back at me, having admired the beautiful constellations above.
"I'm trying to think of a time like this in my life, Hakins, and I really can't. Even when we travelled, I never had my own space like this. I know what you're thinking, and I do understand that my parents want the best for me."
His gaze turned downwards, his blonde hair catching in a desert gust.
"But while I have many comforts that few kids in Orre got to have, I've never felt like I was in control of anything that I did. I'm used to being told when something is going to happen, and not if I want it to. Most of the choices my parents et me make weren't really choices at all but, like, meaningless stuff. I know that others here would love to have the life that I have, y'know, but I guess the grass is always greener, right?"
He shook his head. Sergei had started to ladle the hot chili into bowls, and passed us each one. We grabbed the bowls greedily, and would've dug in with our hands had the man mountain not passed us spoons quickly afterwards. Dustin talked between bites.
"But even though that sucked, look at me now! In complete control of what I do and how I do it. And I get to be out here with you too, with help from the most badass guide we could've asked for!"
Sergei chuckled, using an iron rod to lift the pot by the handle away from the fire. I put my hand on Dustin's shoulder, turning to him as I did so.
"I understand how that can feel, Dustin. We're on our way to something better now, though, so we don't have to spend time looking behind us anymore." I replied, my voice seeming to echo through the vast expanse of desert.
After that, the only other sounds were the crackling of the fire, the soft rumble of the flames, and the metallic clanging of spoons against bowls.
Sergei lifted his right arm to run a hand through his messy brown hair, a content expression on his face. He seemed amused watching us scarf down our grub, so much so that he had been taking slower bites just to focus on the spectacle. Dustin and I, meanwhile, cleaned our bowls in minutes. As we both took a moment to breathe, Sergei let out a deep laugh.
"I had considered proposing some kind of toast with our bowls to success or a good start or something like that. I feared, however, that you might lunge at me like a couple of angry Lycanroc if I tried to get your mouths out of the bowls."
"Maybe we can do it with our water bottles instead?" Dustin proposed.
"What a marvelous idea, chuvak!" Sergei replied, standing up with his canteen in hand.
Dustin and I followed in suit raising our water bottles into the air.
"To your first journey, gospoda! And beautiful horizons yet seen!" Sergei exclaimed.
"Amen!" I called out.
"Amen!" Dustin echoed.
With a dull thud, our vessels met over the fire, and Dustin and I both took large swigs from our bottles. Sergei took a similarly large swig from his flask, but seemed to hold back a cough. We all sat back down on the cushions, the man mountain having to clear his throat.
"Hakins; Dustin." he began a minute later, his face growing less amicable. "I am happy to see your love of adventure; good morale out here will get us very far. But I must put aside the optimism for a moment…"
Once we get deeper into the desert, it is almost certain that we will run into many of the...eh...locals. And you must not trust them unless I tell you that you can; no matter how friendly they may seem, or how much they say they want to help, they most often do not. These are very very dangerous people, and they will do and say whatever is necessary to get your guard down, and pick you clean. If you're lucky, you won't get beat within an inch of your life too."
He paused, gaging our reactions. Sergei was projecting a similar air of seriousness that I had felt during his encounter with Zook. Dustin only stared, clearly a bit nervous about the change in atmosphere, while my fists were clenched under the blanket I had draped over my shoulder. I wouldn't admit it, but I was scared too.
Sergei took another sip from his flask.
"We will be completely fine, as long as you listen to me. There are many nicer places throughout Orre, with quality people I have surely not met. Therefore, I am not telling you to hiss or bark at everybody we come across, but to take me very seriously when I tell you to watch yourself. Understood, gospoda?"
Dustin and I nodded. I caught myself not breathing, and took a deep breath.
Suddenly, a large amount of movement in the sands echoed behind us. Dustin yelped, rolling away from the noise wrapped in his blanket, while I jolted upright and booked it for the truck, letting out a fearful noise I didn't know I was able to make. It didn't take me long to scramble up the ramp of the truck and inside, but during that time another problem had arisen. I heard Dustin shouting, and whirled around to see the blanket that was wrapped around his starting to catch ablaze.
I was frozen in place for a moment, but then sprung into some hybrid between heroic action and panic mode once I saw Sergei launch into action as well.
"In the chiffonier, Hakins!" he shouted.
Sergei started stomping out the campfire and yelling more instructions to Dustin, who was currently trying to untangle from the blanket that was being crept upon by the flames. I frantically looked around the truck, opening crates, looking under the sofa.
What the fuck is a chiffonier? I thought.
My heart was pounding in my chest, and I could still hear Dustin screaming outside. My eyes darted around the room, and locked onto a wooden cabinet...closet…
There!
I threw the doors of the thing open, locating a fire extinguisher behind some hung up coats. I grabbed it while moving towards the campsite, stumbling as I did so. I cleared the loading ramp with a jump, and as soon as I got within range of Sergei, I underhanded the awkwardly heavy extinguisher to him. I caught Dustin rolling around on the stone in my peripheral, but was preoccupied with not fucking up the throw.
Sergei caught the device, and wheeled around to Dustin who, despite rolling, was not able to get the fire under control.
"HOLD YOUR BREATH, MY FRIEND!" Sergei shouted, ripping the pin and unleashing the foam at him.
Dustin kept rolling around but seemed to hear him, stopping his shouting as he was showered by the chemical foam. The flames resisted at first, but quickly relented. Clearly not taking any chances, Sergei went the extra mile with the thing, using quite a bit more then was likely necessary. Once the fire was extinguished, Dustin managed to free himself from the blanket, stumbling forwards a few yards before collapsing onto the edge of the stone platform.
I ran over to Dustin with Sergei, half-expecting to see the burnt remnants of my friend. However, the half moon shone over the whole desert, so I was able to clearly discern once getting to him that he was somehow unharmed. Dustin was lying on his back, breathing heavily. Streaks of white foam dotted his clothing.
"Dustin, are you alright?" I asked.
"I was on fire...I was actually on fire" Dustin responded, starting to laugh but breaking into a coughing fit.
"How is this funny?" I posed, baffled to see Dustin still laughing through his coughs.
"Come on, Hakins, think about it. We hear some noise, and the first thing my dumbass does is roll in a thick blanket near a fire!"
Dustin's laughter continued, and I found myself unable to stem my own laughter at that. However, more shuffling in the dark got our attention, and I turned to the source of the movement to gaze in horror at over a dozen sets of glowing yellow eyes watching us in the dark.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE?" I shouted, putting myself between Dustin and the towering figures.
Dustin pushed himself upright, narrowing his eyes.
"Those are Cacturne," he said, clearly less panicked than I was at seeing the source of the noise. "But why are there so many of them? Creepy as hell."
Sergei chuckled, crouching down and inspecting Dustin for injuries as if there weren't well over a dozen paris of eyes staring us down from the desert.
"Let's see here...Perestroika, you are a very lucky man. A thick flammable wool blanket that was thick enough to keep you from the flames is something I never thought possible. And I almost didn't buy that Grade-A Extinguisher at the market, either."
"Sergei," I said. "I get that you're probably not scared of anything, but why aren't you more concerned about those Cacturne? They could attack us at any minute."
"That posse always has a tendency to scare newcomers. Yes, they stand there because they are waiting for you expire so they can harvest your body. But so long as you don't die in your sleep tonight, they will not bother us." Sergei finished, picking up the cushions and bowls and whistling as he walked back to the truck with them.
"You should grab your sleepwear and whatever else you need. We should get moving in the morning, and you'll want time for breakfast, so get some sleep, gospoda."
I stood in disbelief at Sergei's nonchalance, and then turned back to the large amount of Cacturne gazing back at us in the dark. I narrowed my eyes, and saw many of their feet shuffling anxiously. Knowing the context of their nervous behavior hadn't helped with the unease one bit.
Regardless, Dustin and I grabbed our duffels from the truck, and each settled into our own tents after changing. Sergei checked in on each of us in turn, before going back to his truck to sleep on the sofa onboard. I settled in, my tent more than large enough to accommodate me. I was in my sleeping bag, a pillow resting behind my head as I laid on my back. Taking some deep breaths, I tried to settle in and sleep, but a combination of it being earlier than I was used to and the movement from the Cacturne outside was making things difficult.
Within an hour, I was at my wit's end, and crawled out of my sleeping bag, unzipping the door to my tent before stepping out, my heavy wool socks helping cushion my feet against the smooth stone. Looking out, my tent was close to Sergei's truck, while Dustin's was in between. I quietly made my way to Dustin's tent, deciding to shake the front of it in the absence of anything to knock on. Within seconds, the door to the tent began to unzip, and Dustin popped his head out.
"Dustin, sorry but I-"
"Yeah those Cacturne suck and I can't sleep either." Dustin quickly replied, moving past me to look at the large group of Pokemon.
They stood still upon locking eyes with us, a similar distance from an hour earlier but a different area. All in all, there looked to be well over twenty of them.
"Seriously, how evil do you have to be to just wait for people to die in the desert and eat them?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.
"I think it's more about desperation than anything evil." Dustin said, narrowing his eyes at the group of Pokemon. "I mean, how much food do you really think they're getting out here?"
I rolled my eyes.
"God damnit Dustin. You'd take the moral stance on an ice cream scoop falling out of the cone." I replied.
"Just look that them, man," Dustin muttered, using his hand to shove my body in their direction.
I begrudgingly turned my attention back to the Cacturne, and began to see what Dustin was talking about. While I had initially thought that they were merely still, it was more clear when focusing on them that they were leaning to the left and the right slightly, jerking upright occasionally as if woozy or nauseous.
"I guess I could see that as them being hungry…" I said with a shrug.
"If I'm right, then there's an easy way to prove it." Dustin stated. "I bet you brought a bunch of granola bars on this trip, right?"
"Aw man, I was hopin' to save those. But if you think that'll help, then I'll bite the Bullet Seed here." I heaved a sigh, and led Dustin back to my tent.
Reaching into my duffel, I pulled out two small boxes of granola bars, putting them in his hands once I was out of my tent again. Dustin shook his head judgementally, and walked to the edge of the stone platform overlooking the Cacturne. They seemed startled that someone was moving towards them, and huddled even closer together.
"Are we sure about this?" I asked. "I feel like Sergei wouldn't want us feeding them."
"If they don't react, then we go back and try to sleep. Deal?"
"I'll hold you to that." I replied, moving to stand to his right. "And I'm with you if things go south here."
Dustin nodded, and opened one of the boxes of granola bars, taking an individual snack out.
"Hey! We have food for you if you're hungry!" Dustin called out.
The Cacturne tilted their heads in near unison. One of their posse began to step forwards, but was stopped by another Cacturne, who emerged from the group and began communicating with all of them.
"I think that's the leader," Dustin whispered, still holding the bar over his head. "It looks kinda weird too, doesn't it?"
Despite the moon illuminating the area, color was not clear, but it did seem like the Cacturne he was talking about was a much different shade than the others. Almost...orange?
"We're not trying to trick you! We just want to help, so that you don't have to wait for us to, like, die and stuff." Dustin said, his voice echoing across the dunes.
The main Cacturne barked orders, and the posse huddled up, talking quietly enough to where we couldn't even hear their voices. The fact that we had gotten to this point had exceeded my expectations, and the smug look that Dustin was shooting my way meant that he was painfully aware of that truth.
I felt my face begin to go numb as we waited in the desert cold for several minutes. Just as I was starting to finalize my "told you so" piece, the group of Cacturne ended their huddle, taking a more organized formation in neat rows and columns. Then, one of the normal Cacturne broke off of the group, and began to approach us, swaying side to side weakly. I felt a shiver run through me as the lone Cacturne closed the distance between us, and I could no longer tell whether it was from the chill of the night or the lumbering Pokemon ahead. I looked to Dustin for his reaction, and saw a calm and resolute expression. I then turned my attention back towards the posse to see that the Cacturne was now only about a dozen yards away. I straightened up, not wanting to be the reason that this did not work out, and within the minute, the Cacturne was standing a couple feet away from us.
Dustin took a deep breath, gesturing for me to follow him. We both walked slowly towards the Cacturne. It was about our height, its stiff arms draped at its sides like the branches on a tree. We stopped in front of it, and there was something reassuring about looking at the Pokemon and seeing that it was clearly nervous too. It shifted its legs back and forth, shooting quick glances at its posse every couple of seconds. Tentatively, Dustin held out the granola bar.
"Cac!"
Cacturne's arms made a crunching sound, and it took all the willpower I had to not jump at the loud noise. After a couple of smaller crunches, Cacturne appeared to gain more flexibility with its wide spiny arms, and held out one of its arms towards us. Dustin carefully placed the granola bar there, careful to avoid being pricked by one of the many thorns covering Cacturne's body. The Pokemon withdrew its arm, inspecting the wrapped treat carefully. It sniffed the bar, then looked back at us again.
"Uh, you have to open it first." I said.
"Cac-turne cac?" the Pokemon replied, shaking the bar a bit.
"Like this." Dustin said, grabbing another bar from the box and tearing the wrapper open.
"Turne Cacturne!" Cacturne replied, nodding its head.
It waved its thorny arm over the wrapper while holding it in its other hand, causing the packaging to tear easily. It tossed the wrapper to the side, now sniffing the granola bar. It slowly took a bite, while Dustin and I watched in anticipation. After a few moments, Cacturne's face lit up, and it hungrily finished the granola bar.
"Good right?" I asked, relieved to see that this had worked.
"Cac-turne!" the Pokemon replied gleefully.
It then turned back to its posse, and loudly relayed the news. The odd-looking Cacturne barked some orders back, and then the Cacturne near us held out its arms again. Dustin gave the remaining granola bars to the Cacturne, who hurried back to its posse, clearly more sure-footed and energized.
Dustin and I watched as the Cacturne gave out the granola bars to all of them. I laughed a bit as I saw the rest of the Cacturne react a similar way to the first one. The main Cacturne turned back to us as its posse was chowing down, and gave us each a nod in turn before barking more orders to the group. The posse then turned away from us, moving deeper into the desert as a group. We watched them until they disappeared behind one of the many sand dunes.
"Wow, that was-"
"I don't think we're ever gonna make sense of that." I interjected, shaking my head in disbelief.
"Probably not. I'm glad we gave them something to eat though." Dustin smiled and was once again admiring the stars.
"Me too." I replied, looking up too. "Let's just hope that doesn't bite us in the ass later on."
We both admired for the stars for a little while, before it dawned on me that it must be late.
"We should get some shut eye now. Sergei made it sound like we'll be up early in the morning." I said, taking in the night sky for one last moment before looking back down.
Dustin's sea blue eyes stayed transfixed on the sky above for a second longer, but he seemed to agree, and let out a yawn before making his way back to his tent. We parted ways there, and I was back in my sleeping bag soon after. Without the fear of a group of watchful Cacturne in the dark, relaxing came easier, and sleep soon after that…
"Rise and shine, chuvak. Breakfast is already out, so grab a bite to eat and get ready to pack up."
I awoke slowly to the sound of my tent being ruffled. Rubbing my eyes groggily, I rolled onto my back to attempt to answer the noise. While my eyes hadn't yet really opened, I knew that it was Sergei talking.
"I'm up I'm up," I replied, my voice still incredibly hoarse. I hadn't really factored in just how much the dry weather was dehydrating me.
I opened my eyes a little wider, covering them with a free arm as the rising desert sun was quite bright, even through my tent. I let out a sigh. Despite getting rid of the Cacturne the previous night, I had still not slept well; I wasn't used to sleeping on such rough terrain.
My eyes began to slowly focus in more, and I looked around my tent, locating my water bottle in one of its corners. After grabbing it and getting a few swigs in, I began to get changed. After throwing on a thin grey long sleeve and some shorts, I got to work packing my things back into my duffel. I was never the neatest packer, but left enough extra space to shove my essentials in. About ten minutes later, I emerged from my tent, duffel slung around my shoulder and ready to get some food in my system before the second leg of our journey.
Dustin was sitting by the former location of the campfire, once again scrolling through the Pokedex. He was in a short sleeve t-shirt with jeans and a beanie, which was standard Dustin wear. I could see some smoke coming from the truck, and walked around to get the right angle. Sergei was using the stove in his great truck to cook some more canned food, another cigar dangling from his mouth as he did so.
Wondering how late I'd slept in, I turned on my phone. After gawking at the dwindling battery life, I then saw that it was just before 7AM.
"Dude, the world of Pokemon is crazy!"
Dustin's voice echoed behind me, so I walked back over to him, noticing that he hadn't seemed to start packing up yet.
"I mean, so many Pokemon can use Flamethrower." he continued. "Jigglypuff, Galarian Darumaka - which is Ice type, mind you -, and even Octillery!"
"That is really weird." I replied curtly. "But shouldn't you be packing up right now?"
Dustin laid the Pokedex back on his lap for a moment before he quickly powered it off, shoving it in his pocket.
"Oh shit! God damnit! I'll get started straight away. God. Damnit."
His profane self-dialogue continued as he rushed to his tent, but I moved towards the truck before I could hear any more of it. As I stepped up the ramp of the truck, I was accosted by a plate being placed into my hands. I looked up to see Sergei with a smile on his face
"Eat up, chuvak! I'll help with your tent once you're all done, so get some energy in you first." the man mountain said, putting more food into skillet on the stove.
I nodded, brushing past him to put my duffel back into one of the crates. As I threw the duffel in, I could swear that I heard another thing on the truck rustle, but ignored it. I then finally looked down at what was on my plate. Canned eggs with baked beans and some kind of sausage. While I knew that this would gross Dustin out, I was used to eating this sort of thing on Citadark. My father was a great cook, but how much could you really spruce canned ingredients up?
After quickly polishing off the food, and giving the plate back to Sergei to rinse, the man mountain and I descended the ramp of the truck, just in time to see Dustin's tent collapse. I heard a yelp from inside, as Dustin dragged half of his body out of it, holding the thin metal poling. He flipped onto his back.
"Y'know, being super independent is, like, only great in concept." Dustin said, letting out a sigh as Sergei and I walked over to him.
"I don't think that anyone nails something the first time." I replied, lifting Dustin's tent enough for his legs to spring free. "Hell, it's a miracle we didn't drive those pitching rods right through our hands."
"What's really crazy is how much you've changed in just the past few days, dude." Dustin replied, brushing his curly hair out of his face to give me a smile.
"Here, let's get your tent taken care of first." I said.
Sergei only nodded, starting to untie the strings of the tent from the spikes. Dustin and I worked side by side to get things untangled.
"How do you think I've changed?" I continued, my focus trained on getting the various velcro straps undone.
Dustin chuckled, working to get the metal poling fully away from the tent.
"I mean, you may look the same and everything, but your whole outlook seems so much different. Just last week, you told me that no matter how hard we may work to pursue our dreams, we will only be left with "the realization that there are many things that we'll never get to do.""
As Dustin quoted me, he took on a mockingly pitched voice. He then turned to me, blue eyes tinged with amusement.
"You didn't even know if you liked Pokemon, for crying out loud!" he continued. "And now you're the one giving me pep talks, and telling me that things will be ok. You've really come a long way, and you did it by speaking up, something I never thought you'd do."
We finished the work in relative silence, laughing as we grappled with cramming the entire tent into a ridiculously small bag. Sergei got to work unscrewing the spikes from the earth. As Dustin pulled the string and tightened the bag shut, I had put all the words together in my head. I spoke as we made our way back to the truck with the tent.
"I'm sorry that I was so negative all of the time." I began. "I won't get super mushy with it or anything, but I promise that the attitude that I had before is long behind me. I know that, considering how little time it's really been, that hearing that might sound ridiculous. But really experiencing what being a Pokemon Trainer was like has seriously changed my outlook on things. I may not have a Pokemon of my own yet, but things can only go up from here, right?"
Dustin nodded, and I appreciated him not giving me a hard time for being somewhat open.
"I couldn't agree more." he replied. "There are enough people everywhere focused on how awful things might be anyways, so we might as well put our attention somewhere more productive."
"Damn straight." I responded, holding out my clenched right hand.
He connected on the fist bump. We then speedily dropped off the tent bag before working on the next. Sergei had us switch roles this time, in a further effort to make sure that we knew how to do every step of the process. After learning what a ratchet was for, getting the spikes out of the earth was a breeze. I tried not to notice how much more efficient Sergei was with dismantling the tent, chalking it up to my tent being whole from the start. Eventually, the job was done, and Sergei chucked the second tent into one of the crates, which I promptly shut and latched.
"Alright, all that's left is to get more firewood loaded onto the truck. We won't get as many trees once we get deeper into the desert!" Sergei said, gesturing towards the treeline.
Dustin, who had taken a seat on the smooth stone that formerly housed our camping setup, gave Sergei a confused look.
"It's already starting to heat up and you want us to chop down a couple of trees?" Dustin asked, wiping his brow with his hand.
While I was getting better acclimated to the physical work, I was inclined to agree. The morning sun hadn't even gotten halfway to its apex, and it was already heating up.
Sergei shook his hand, stretching his shoulders out.
"Do not worry, my friends! Comrade Sergei was up early in the morning, and already processed a tree into firewood. We just need to go and grab it!" the man mountain said, clearly happy that his feats were met with awe from the two of us.
We walked the distance of the smooth stone to the treeline, where firewood and kindling were neatly stacked. Wincing at the feeling of splinters as I took a stack of the firewood, I hurried to get the job done as timely as possible.
The three of us made only two trips out of the supplies, but the warm morning had Dustin and I sweating quite a bit by the time we were done. Once we loaded the last of the wood into its own crate, Sergei nudged the two of us, making us turn back around.
"Just over an hour ago, this was a full campsite, gospoda." Sergei said from behind us. "You may be tired, but take a moment to be proud of your work. You two are quick learners."
At the prompting of Sergei, I did feel a surge of satisfaction at a job well done.
"Man, Hakins," Dustin said. "I think we're slowly becoming badasses."
I only nodded, busy taking another swig from my water bottle.
"Taken it all in?" Sergei asked. "Because it's time to return the land back to its natural state."
Sergei then stepped in front of us, throwing one of his Poke Balls. Out came Golem, and with a nod from Sergei, Golem rolled to the road that we had driven on.
The man mountain then ushered us out and around to the driver's cockpit, closing the ramp as we did so. We piled in, and with a key into the ignition, Sergei's titan roared to life. The truck needed extra time to get back on the road, but once it did, Sergei whistled out his window. Golem, still by the road too, closed its eyes. I once again felt small tremors running through the earth.
"You might want to roll your window up." Sergei said, already halfway through getting his closed.
Dustin, who was on the passenger's side, frantically cranked the window. He narrowly got it closed in time, as a massive thud reverberated throughout the area, causing a large amount of sand to be sent into the air. The clear morning sky briefly darkened, as sand washed over Sergei's truck. About a minute later, the dust settled, and the platform that had held us was completely gone, replaced by another sand dune. Golem had positioned itself right outside of Sergei's window, which he promptly lowered, retuning Golem to its Poke Ball.
"Alright you two, let's get going. We should get to the Oasis by the afternoon if we keep course." Sergei said, holstering Golem's Poke Ball back on his belt.
The man mountain put the truck and gear, and with that, the large vehicle began its trek down the lonely road into the desert ahead...