Indeed, to the east pf the stage Riley and Lilly had battled on was a wooden arch that lead into a sea of trees so thick you could hardly see the interior through the wall of trees that lined the city's exit. Professor Maple in her professional-looking tuxedo-blouse and skirt, and Akili in her knee-length skirt and puffy sweater walked into the woods. Lilly followed them, leaving Riley behind. It was up to him what he wanted to do, but what else was there to do than enter the forest?
Tempura Forest's air was thick, but easy to breathe. The sound of rushing creaks was inescapable, but relaxing. The trees were, many, so tall that Riley couldn't see their tops. And the ground was very, very, very grassy. There was so much grass that Pokemon could easily thrive here by hiding in it. Riley looked around, before finding himself knee-deep in grass. He would have to be careful, because- ah!
A Pokemon sprung out of the tall grass, just as the Stoaf had jumped out of the leaves on Route 3. He readied Burndillo to weaken the Pokemon. It was a very, very small Pokemon; so small, in fact, that it could fit in Riley's palm. He silently ordered Burndillo to use Tackle, and its single attack was enough to make the Pokemon weak. That's when Riley took a PokeBall from his bag and threw it at the Pokemon. It gently bumped it before the Pokemon was whisked inside of it in the form of a white beam of light.
It shook a couple times, but eventually, the button on the PokeBalls front glowed a cool gold. He'd caught the Pokemon! He looked at his PokeDex to see what Pokemon it was he had caught. "Number 27, Concealpillar. Bug-type. The Shy Bug Pokèmon. Concealpillar are incredibly shy. From birth, they craft hoods made out of their silky saliva in order to conceal themselves. They tend to avoid social situations, but are easily befriended if one were to actually get through to one. When using special attacks, they pull their hoods closed because they're afraid of seeing others be hurt by their attacks."
Riley tilted his head in a gesture that he thought Concealpillar was really quite cute. He let it out of its PokeBall and restored it using one of the Potions he'd bought in Torutara Town. Soon, he encountered a section of the trail that had two rocks blocking most of it. There was only enough space between the big rocks for one person, and there was already someone there. The person must have heard Riley's footsteps in the thick grass, because he turned around. He was wearing a stylish trench coat in a desaturated navy blue colour. His hair was a similar colour to Riley's, and he had thick eyebrows, equally thick sideburns, and a stylish goatee that went well with the rest of his style. His hair was up in spikes that faced on a slight diagonal to his left side. It was odd, but stylish. On top of that, he wore pretty run-of-the-mill jeans and a shirt that looked identical to Riley's grey t-shirt, only resized to fit the man's figure better. He had a thick belt with a fashionable buckle, which had a small pack clipped onto it, which appeared to have space for a handful of items and a slot for a tablet like Professor Maple's, only smaller.
That last detail was strongly reinforced by the fact that his face was focused intently on the holographic screen of a tablet. "Hello there. Oh, I must be blocking your path, am I?"
Riley nodded politely.
"My deepest apologies. I was only studying the Pokemon and environment here to assist my Pokemon conservation efforts. My name is Eric. I'm done researching Tempura Woods now anyway, so I'll be off. I'd be pleased to see you again in the future."
Heh, Riley couldn't help but chuckle at how sweet and polite that man was. He gave him a friendly wave goodbye as the man, Eric, left, before continuing on down the path that was no longer blocked by a person.
There was an aesthetic pond past that pair of rocks that was fed by at least three different creek that were flowing in three different directions. There were some people sitting on rocks and there were some cute Pokemon that looked like frogs sitting on the lillypads that were in the pond. Riley, not being able to swim, would not be able to reach them, but perhaps one day.
But there was another trainer who was more important to him, and that was Lilly. "Hey Riley. You catch any new Pokemon?" Riley's response to Lilly's question was a simple nod, as it always was. "Cool! I found a new friend, too. Its name is Hermiflage. It's a really cute little thing that keeps a bunch of grass and ground and dirt and stuff on its back so that it doesn't get spotted. But my eye is keener than that!" Riley chuckled at Lilly's enthusiasm.
She sighed, looking admittedly quite terrified. "See that?" She was pointing to a huge log that had been cut in half to make a bridge across a rocky drop. "That's Tempura Forest's infamous log bridge." Lilly gulped. "I'm so scared I'll slip on the slippery bark and fall through the rope railing or something. I can't cross alone!"
Riley put his sleek hand on his best friend's shoulder, reassuring her that it would be okay. "Y-you'll cross with me?" asked Lilly. Riley nodded, and they carefully crossed the half-log bridge and made it safely to the other side, where they saw the entrance to Sherrow City, a city not many people would visit for tourism, but one with plenty of useful facilities like, for example, the Pokemon Trainer School.
Similar to Vancine City, a skytrain line cast its shadow on the grounds of Sherrow City. But unlike Vancine City, the ground was primarily grassy, with only paving on trails where pedestrians walk. It felt like the past and the future colliding to create an alternate version of the present, or at least that's how Riley would describe it.
It was a good-sized city. Big enough to require a skytrain for more convenient travel. "Oh, you two made it." It was the Professor, who was accompanied by Akili. "The Pokemon Trainer School is located right by the exit into Osuyasa Desert, the only desert climate in Chinocko. Due to a persistent sandstorm, though, it's off limits currently."
"Darn," Lilly sighed. "I wanted to check out the desert Pokemon that Chinocko has."
"It's okay," reassured the Professor. "It can only stay stormy for a finite period of time. But it's not worth waiting for it to stop when we've got so many other important things to attend to."
"Like our meeting with the Trainer School Research Department?" added Akili.
"Yes, precisely," Maple nodded. "The meeting will take us a while, you two, but it's important that you wait for us to finish up before trying to go anywhere else and potentially getting into trouble."
"Got it, Maple." Lilly nodded and turned to Riley. "Hey, Riley, while they're busy, why don't we check out the Ice Rink? I heard that there's a hockey game happening soon!" In response, Riley smiled and pumped his fist. To the Ice Rink!
"Two tickets for the hockey game, please!" Lilly asked of the box office employee.
"Alright, enjoy the game!" The brown-haired teenager behind the glass slid two blue tickets through the slot in the glass.
The two walked in after a girl in a black outfit ripped the stubs off their tickets and let them through the doors of the arena. "Enjoy the game!"
Riley and Lilly both sat down in their seats three rows up from the ice, and put their boxes of popcorn in their laps. The game started not long after they sat down, and the players skated onto the ice. The game started immediately when all of the players were in position, and the arena became hot as the friction of the skates on the thick ice.
"I'm so excited!" Lilly giggled. "Everyone in Chinocko loves hockey! It's part of our culture, practically." She looked over at Riley, "there's even some Pokemon in Chinocko that like playing hockey, like Machamp, Lucario, Cryluchagon and Delibird!" She giggled and grinned, remembering how much her cousin's Lucario loved to skate and slap the puck around with its paws.
Riley smiled too. His dad and himself always played hockey together when he was younger. They went to Quartzel Lake in the winter when it froze over and skated for hours in the nippy cold.
They returned their focus to the game. Two smaller local teams were playing against each other, the Sherrow Machoke and the Snowfalle City Snowswarm! Everyone, player and audience alike, was spilling out with excitement. Every move was received with an excited cheer that waved across the audience. It was just like it always was, and Riley relished in the happiness of everyone around him.
The announcer made every move more exciting, and every goal was followed by a siren blare that was quiet in comparison to the reactions of the audience members. The game lasted about an hour, which was short for a usual hockey game. It ended on a close call, with the Snowfalle City Snowswarm losing to the Sherrow Machoke by only a single point.
"That was great, wasn't it, Riley?" Lilly grinned, taking a sip of her drink that she'd bought inside the arena.
"Hey, you two. What great timing, our meeting just wrapped up," waved Maple. Standing next to her was Akili, her familiar assistant, as well as a stranger.
The stranger was tall, had pitch-black hair, snow-white skin, and golden eyes. She had on a fashionable necklace which had a pendant inspired by the common Pokemon, Fractiamond, around her neck. A locke of her hair curled beside her nose, around her ear, and into a scrunchy that started a ponytail in the back of her hair. Her glasses had thin rims and were practically invisible. On her torso was a fashionable dress that appeared to be based off the design of a kimono. The sleeves were long and ended in a bell shape, but only one of them was attached to the shirt part. The other sleeve was attached to the lady's arm by a silver arm band. She had on skinny jeans that were tucked snuggly into her heeled boots, and from one of the belt loops hung a chain that wrapped around her pocket and connected to another belt loop in the back of the jeans.
Her voice was mature and soft as she pronounced, "Hello, you two. I'm Nalia, a teacher at the university over in Vancine City. I met Professor Maple and Akili here in the Trainer School to discuss the Pokemon League and the treatment of the Pokemon that belong to Gym Leaders and the other ranks of trainers in Chinocko's League." She paused and looked at the two eleven-year olds. "You seem like you're going to become strong Trainers yourselves. Why don't you start your Pokemon League challenge at my gym in Vancine City? I specialize in Normal-type Pokemon because I enjoy starting Trainers off with their first Chinocko League Gym Badge. Stop by. Vancine City, if you didn't already know, is West of New Moon Town, across Route 2, which the Fractal River runs through. Meet you there!"
"Let's head back," Lilly smiled, following in Nalia's path.
"Akili and I, " nodded Maple, "will be back in my labs in New Moon Town." With that, those two also headed back into Tempura Forest.
Riley stopped at the Pokemon Centre in Sherrow City before heading back himself. He fearlessly traversed the woods, but someone, again, was blocking the slim path between the rocks, where Pokemon Conservationist Eric had been standing before.
"Oh, hey," they said, not particularly with any discernible emotion. "Am I in your way?"
Riley nodded politely.
"Too bad. I'm busy." The speaker was a boy not too much older than Riley, who was wearing a nearly-black outfit. He wore fingerless gloves identical to Riley's, had pitch-black hair, thick boots that could withstand all terrains, and a triangular d-shaped symbol on his chest. Over his eyes was a green holo-screen that made his eyes look emerald-coloured.
Riley tried to find another way around the young man, but couldn't. He tapped the guy's shoulder again.
"What? I told you I'm busy. You lookin' for a battle with a Grunt of Team Delta, because you've got one!" He took on a battle-ready position, and inputted something into the keyboard on his left wrist. "Show this kid who's boss, Eevee!"
Out of a Dusk Ball hopped a cute fox-like Pokemon, Eevee. "Ve'e!" it barked. Its tail started wagging when it saw that it was being used in a battle.
"Cea-lar!" chittered Concealpillar. It pulled its silky hood shut, fearful of battle. Riley looked guilty when he noticed that it was so scared, but commanded it to use Bug Bite. It waddled over to Eevee and reluctantly bit it on the ear. The furry Pokemon's ear broke out into an allergic reaction and a couple red bumps appeared.
Eeve scratched its ear, trying to satisfy the itch that had sprouted. "My prized Eevee," the 'Team Delta Grunt' started. "Use Bite!"
Eevee skipped energetically over to Concealpillar and bit it on its chest. It jumped back, not wanting to be countered. But the insectoid Pokemon wouldn't let it get away with hurting it! It scurried over and used Tackle, whacking Eevee with its big, round head.
"Eev...!" Eevee sighed as it feel to the ground, its eyes shutting.
"No, my poor, lovely Pokemon!" yelped the trainer who was standing in Riley's way. "I'll get you right to the Pokemon Centre, and then give you all the Chinoughnuts you can eat, within reason, of course." He left in the direction of Torutara Town. "You may have gotten your way this time, but I won't let you beat me again!"