David had left the city.

The small wooden booth in front of him, lonely against the trees, was a clear sign of that. A silver mountain insignia decorated its side, the same one that was on the League office.

Walking up to the building David was glad to see a map of Route 7 posted on the wall. The map had a key down the bottom but he didn't have too much trouble reading it. The map shared some similarity to trail maps that he was used to seeing while hiking. The information was just displayed in different ways. The path to Celadon was shown in a yellowish colour, woodland areas in green shading, a small river or stream was marked in blue and brown contour lines described elevation. What was new to David were yellowy-red lines drawing larger and larger circles around the path. According to the index, these zones required a number of badges to be allowed to travel through. Route 7 had zones up to 4 badges.

Alongside the map was a small bulletin board. On the board was a small warning about the Meowth population.

'Huh, Meowth are the Pokemon version of magpies.'

David wasn't able to follow any of the recommended measures listed on the warning. He didn't have a Pokemon to guard his belongings or a repel to apply to his kit. But he wasn't too worried. He didn't have any of the berries or items listed as their usual targets. Thankfully there was no mention of Meowth clawing up gear like cats from back home.

The rest of the board had notes with people issuing challenges or asking for information about Pokemon seen on the route. He was interested in a few missing item requests. Two were for zones with badge restrictions that he wasn't allowed into. But a request for a lost ring and another for a missing trainer licence card caught his eye. Both could be handed into this Ranger's office or the Police stations in Saffron or Celadon. When the Ranger office was manned that is. David poked his head around the building but it was empty.

Moving back to the map, David tried to identify where he would be camping. There were little tent icons on the map and one was near the river snaking through the map. The spot was to the north of the path and in a clearing which stretched up and around behind some trees. The spot would give him some separation from the path and access to water.

David rolled his shoulders and set off. As he walked into the route, more and more Pokemon called out through the woodlands. It was a stark contrast to any hiking he had done back home. Bird song was a pleasant treat and he rarely heard any ground animals. In this world it was clear who dominated these lands.

Fortunately he was not bothered by anything before he arrived at a fork in the path. A small tent sign pointed out north and the splintering path was thin with grass patches dominating the track.

Five minutes later the path ended in a clearing surrounded by trees. A small stream snaked down a hill to the east and flowed westerly among the trees to the north of the clearing. The clearing was empty and with a large groan David shrugged his bag off. While he wanted to wash off in the stream, he also wanted some way to stay warm as he dried off. With that in mind he turned back to the bag on the ground.

"And in this unboxing video I will be tackling a League Recovery kit. Let me tell you folks, there must be some good stuff in here based on its weight. I nearly put my back out bringing it here." David said to the empty clearing, smiling to himself at his opening speech.

"Well let's get started with the packaging. The kit comes packed in a standard issue backpack. Aside from some small League logos it is a plain green colour all over. The bag is a simple design with two padded shoulder straps, a drawstring opening at the top and two straps at the base holding our first treat." He was starting to get into his role now. Two quick clicks and he detached a cylindrical parcel from the bottom of the bag. It was wider than his shoulders and covered in a paper-like packaging.

"And here is what you've been waiting for" David gripped the paper with both hands and tore it in half, ripping one side down to the base of the cylinder. This revealed a rolled up bundle of light orange fabric, held rolled by a length of rope around the middle.

"It's a… Huh. What is it?" David removed all the paper and released the rope around the fabric. It sprang open and he got a mouthful of waxy fabric and padding.

"Plth Ple phh" David fell back and tried to spit the fabric out of his mouth. With David out of way, the fabric settled on the ground. It looked like a mix of a yoga mat and a sleeping bag. Some poles had been ejected to the ground from the centre of the tightly wrapped package.

"Is this my tent?"

A bit of despair entered David's voice. It was tiny. Grabbing the poles he felt around the fabric until he located the opening in the sleeping bag/tent. He slid one end of the pole and then he was searching again. Extra material pooled around this section of the tent and it took a minute before he found a slot and clip-in section for the pole.

Ten swearing full minutes later, David was looking at a yellowy orange tent shaped like a door stopper wedge. More than a little frustrated at both the tent and process he pulled open the drawstring on the bag. There must be something that could lift his mood in the bag.

Little of what was in the bag was wrapped and soon he had an inventory of what exactly he had. Along with the tent, he had received a foraging guide, trowel, headtorch, firestarting kit, cooking pot and cutlery set, spool of thin rope, microfibre towel, warm layers in the form of long johns and most importantly toilet paper. David was glad to see the headtorch had batteries. There was nothing worse than buying something and being unable to use it. Not that he bought this but it still counted. The toilet paper was marked with symbols that David guessed stood for biodegradable and flammable. The same symbols were on the tent wrapping paper. With a towel now available to him there was only one option and after a glance around David stripped off his clothes and headed to the stream.

A little while later David was shivering in the long johns. After a cold but refreshing wash in the stream he had tackled his clothes. Now clean himself they smelled twice as bad. The smell seemed to come from an oil on the back of the clothes and not from the various dirt spots. David guessed that the oil was from the Grimer and the stains from general alley rubbish the oil had bonded to the clothes. There wouldn't be many Grimers left if they lost part of their body every time they touched something. His clothes were left drying off a length of the string between two trees.

David had left the bag in the tent as he cleaned up to avoid any Meowth but he retrieved it to look at the foraging guide. The kit had not contained any food and he had missed two meals today and was on his way to missing another.

The guide was small and in black and white. It did contain images of berries, roots and herbs that were edible but that didn't surprise David. What did surprise him was the fried Caterpie recipe. The guide had a step by step guide on removing its silk gland and a warning about not attempting to do the same to Weedle due to its poison. He skipped ahead to a section on fire pits when he saw the recipes for Pidgey and other flying types. Childhood ruining sections aside, it was a comprehensive guide.

There were branches around the edges of the clearing for the fire so David focused on finding food. He tucked the guide into the band of his pants and hid the bag in his tent. He decided to jump across the stream and follow alongside it a little further into the woods. While he had some experience outdoors, he did not want to get lost wearing pyjamas. If he wanted to head back he could head towards the sound of water and follow it back upstream to the campsite.

Long grass came up over David's ankle blocking his view of the ground. He was glad his shoes didn't need to be washed, the stones and divots in the ground were hidden. The grass also made looking for herbs and roots difficult but he was glad it wasn't tall enough to hide any Pokemon.

The loud Pokemon calls he had been hearing were starting to slacken off but amongst the trees he saw small Meowth darting back and forth and a few trying to climb trees. The first glimpse he had of Grass-type Pokemon was comical. A group of Oddish were sitting in the grass around a large tree and trying to hide in the ankle height grass. The fact they had blue bodies and were as tall as his knee made their attempts at hiding meaningless. Giggling a little at the little Pokemon he took a wide berth around the group.

David eventually found a couple of red carrots at the base of a tree. The guide informed him these were called touga and were both edible and nutritious. The touga along with some leafy herbs that he found growing out of the side of a tree was the start of a good salad.

The real prize appeared when he avoided a colony of lurid yellow pitcher plant like Pokemon. The Pokemon surrounded a larger version of the carnivorous species. The smaller versions swayed on stalks and were only slightly larger than the oddish. The large version didn't have a stalk and David could feel its eyes on him as he walked past. At first he thought the collection of blue was another group of Oddish but while it was the same colour, the berries were a lot smaller. According to his guide they were Oran berries and while he didn't remember the shape he knew they restored 10hp. What that meant in the real Pokemon world he didn't know.

Limited by what he could carry and not wanting to become a target for Pokemon, David picked a couple of the larger fist size berries off the bush. With full arms he retreated back towards the stream.

David had explored for about an hour but he estimated it would take just 30 minutes to travel back along the stream. He moved faster when he wasn't searching the surroundings. He made a small pile of rocks by the river to mark the berry spot.

The stream water was fresh and clear. While he had cleaned himself and his clothes in it earlier, the water was quick moving and smell aside, there hadn't been much dirt on him or his clothes. The stream contained more than just water. David was able to spot teeny Magikarp bobbing aimlessly about. They were much smaller than he remembered from the game. Here they ranged from the size of his fist to the size of his head. One head sized fish and no Gyarados. He didn't think Gyarados would fit in the stream but it was telling. The only other animal life he saw on the way back were tadpoles about the size of his finger but they were too small to distinguish much.

Back at the camp, David moved quickly to gather some wood and fill the pot full of water. The carrot shaped Touga needed to be softened by boiling before he could eat it. The leafy herb needed to be washed before eating and Oran berries were the same as the herb but there was a warning to not eat too many. The guide explained the berries were so nutrient and mineral dense that eating too much of one kind could have dangerous effects. Pokemon can handle the nutrient content but the guide was full of warnings about human overconsumption.

Starting the fire was slow but David got it going eventually with help from the guide. When it was all done he had to laugh at his meal. Lacking any plates, he put it all into the pot after draining the water. With the bright red of the touga and blue from the sliced Oran the salad looked more like dessert. He dug in only to regret it. The touga was HOT. It may have looked and felt like a carrot but its chilli red colour should have warned him. Thankfully a mix of the bland Oran and the slightly bitter herb helped manage the heat. The Oran berry had the consistency of a ripe pear.

David blearily cleaned up the pot and packed it away before staggering to the tent and quickly nodding off.

Endnote:

Who's that Pokemon?

Extra points if you guess the Pokemon in Ch 0 that wasn't mentioned by name.

David will get a Pokemon eventually I swear... Just consider this as the running around the starter town before you met the Professor.

Uvuvwevwevwe Onyetenyevwe Ugwe - It will be a bit tougher than the usual I hope. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far.

LittleDemon47 - Thanks for checking it out :)