=Lessons Learned=

The plan was simple, go through Route 2 and enter the Santalune Forest before dark and make camp. Justin had never been past Aquacorde Town before however as him and his father spent most of their time in their home town of Vaniville. His father would occasionally take him with him when he travelled to Aquacorde to visit sick or injured Pokémon that couldn't make the trip to receive his care. Even then he didn't visit the town that often, maybe a couple of times last year, but he wasn't sure how many.

He knew from doing research with his dad to know where he needed to go and how long each stop would take if he wanted to be good on time before the time limit to collect all eight gym badges came to a pass at the end of the second year. Route 2 was one of the shortest routes in Kalos, but this would still take him a few hours by the looks of it.

"Geez, I knew this was going to be a lot of walking, but I can barely see the forest at the other end." Justin silently mumbled to himself as he began to finally leave Aquacorde town. After a bit of walking he started to get bored. He'd yet to meet a single Trainer or any wild Pokémon but he still had yet to reach the parts of the route that had tall grass where they liked to hide, by the looks of it, it would be a while before he got to that part of the route.

Eventually Justin's boredom reached its peak and he decided he desperately needed someone to talk to, or at least talk at. Reaching for his belt he took Karen's ball and tossed it to release her, so he could have a little company.

"FENNEKIN!" Karen barked happily expecting to be released into a fight. After looking around excitedly for a bit she turned around to face Justin with a look of curiosity on her face. "Ekin?" she said in a tone of confusion.

"We aren't getting into a battle or anything girl, I just got really bored walking around by myself for so long." He told her, slightly embarrassed that he felt he was just wasting her time. "Um, if you want, I can just put you back in." Justin said now feeling more embarrassed and starting to reach for her ball to recall her.

Karen simply shook her head and started yipping happily at him "Fen Fennekin." She yipped and began to run around him and then stood by him waiting for him to lead them forward.

Glad that she seemed more than happy to keep him company while they walked along the path, he reached down at her and started gently petting her back causing her to close her eyes and coo softly. "Glad I have someone with me now, we are almost halfway through." Justin told her as he straightened up and began to walk forward. "It shouldn't take too much longer to reach the forest, I think."

They both walked together for a few minutes with Justin mainly telling her about how he lost track of time and almost missed Professor Sycamore and almost didn't get to meet her. After that he was about to start telling her about his father and what he did for a living before he saw the tall grass that covered parts of Route 2.

It was hard to trim this type of grass on the trails as it regrew quickly. It seemed like no one had gotten to it recently. It was starting to grow incredibly tall, almost as tall as him and so thick he couldn't see through it.

"I wonder if we'll see any wild Pokémon here." Justin said as he and Karen prepared to go through the tall grass.

Much to his disappointment he didn't see any wild Pokémon right off the bat. He did however see old potion bottles littering the area. It seemed like some Trainers had already made it through here recently and then just dumped the empty bottles on the ground and left.

The sight simply disgusted him. Justin's father had told him that a lot of the visits he usually paid to Aquacorde town were from local and wild Pokémon eating things Trainers left on the ground that smelled like food. Soda caps, chip bags, potion bottles, they all posed a threat to Pokémon since they smelled nice to some of them or they thought they were food. It was mostly small pieces of plastic that they accidently ate while trying to eat something else like a cap on a pile of berries.

He didn't want some poor Pokémon to get sick because someone else couldn't be bothered to put away their trash, but he also wanted to get into the forest before it got dark, so he could find a good spot to set up camp for the night. He knew it wasn't really much of a choice, he simply sighed to himself and placed his backpack on the ground and rummaged around in it looking for a trash bag.

Having finally found a larger one, he then preceded to start collecting as much trash as he could find. Karen simply looked at him in confusion since she thought they were in a hurry to get into the forest based on what Justin was telling her, but he decided to stop and start picking up bottles and bags.

"Fennekin?" She asked him with a curious look as he picked up a glass bottle.

"Hmmm?" Justin said as he looked back at her and saw her just watching him. "Oh, I bet you are wondering why I am doing this huh?" At that she simply nodded at him.

"Well, my dad is a Pokémon doctor and he said a lot of Pokémon get sick from eating trash that Trainers leave behind." He said as he continued to pick up cans and tinfoil. "Sometimes they get so sick that people from town call him if they see a Pokémon that looks really hurt from eating this stuff. I remember one time I went with him there was a Zigzagoon that needed special surgery on his stomach because it accidently ate plastic that was wrapped around these berries someone left behind." He continued as he remembered seeing the poor thing moaning in pain and looking sickly skinny from not being able to eat correctly since the plastic blocked its stomach.

At that Karen gave him a look of horror as he started to finish his story, having paused after picking up a disgustingly sticky ball of foil covered in slime. Seemed like something already tried eating it. He sighed in disgust as he put it in his trash bag that was almost halfway full already and then proceeded to wipe his hands on his pants.

"Dad took care of the poor Zigzagoon for several hours and said it was really hard since it stuck in it really deep. After that we stayed in town for several days giving it medicine to make sure it recovered because it looked really weak after the surgery." He paused as Karen walked up to him carrying a small plastic bottle nozzle in her mouth to place in the trash bag. At that he smiled and scratched her behind her ears. She wagged her tail happily at her reward and waited for him to continue his story.

"We were there for around a week and a half to check on it and made sure it was eating properly. This lady that was there ended up adopting it after it got better, I think she ended up moving to Lumiose City with her sister and took the Zigzagoon with her. That was last year, I wonder if they are doing okay." He commented as he finally finished picking up all the garbage he found as he made his way through the tall grass. His trash bag almost filled to the brim and weighing as if a Rhydon was sitting on it.

What he saw at the other end of the tall grass only made him angry.

He saw an empty trash can.

After stewing in his own anger and placing the trash bag in the can so that other people could use it, he saw a Trainer walking towards him from the Santalune Forest, which was still pretty far away. He looked a few years older than him and wore a blue sleeveless hoodie with a brown strip going down the middle and matching hiking pants. From what he could see of the stranger's arms he seemed physically fit and exercised regularly. He had brown hair cut short and as he got closer Justin could see he had brown eyes.

"Hey how's it going, you a Trainer too?" The older Trainer asked as he walked up to Justin with a friendly smile on his face.

"Yea I just started my journey and I'm heading to Santalune City with my starter Karen to try to get our first gym badge." Justin replied while motioning over to his fire Pokémon.

"Fennekin!" she yipped happily at the stranger when Justin introduced her.

"Wow a Fennekin, that's so cool. I haven't seen one in a longtime." He said as he bent down to get a better look at the small Fox Pokémon. "I'm Kyler by the way, can I pet her?" He asked, and Justin simply nodded giving him permission. He started stroking the hair on her back causing her to wag her tail excitedly, however he quickly gave a small frown that neither of them noticed. Once Kyler stood back up he looked at his hand to see tiny tuffs of loose fur that rubbed off giving a quick glace at the excitable Pokémon before looking back at Justin.

After wiping off the loose fur on his pants he offered his hand in a handshake to which Justin took and felt the teen's strong grip. When they got done shaking hands, he continued introducing himself. "I'm also doing the Pokémon League challenge with my partner Angel. I just need to stop by Aquacorde town and pick some stuff up before I double back to Santalune City for a chance at the gym badge."

"Wait you're coming from Santalune City and you need to go back after getting to Aquacorde?" He asked at what seemed like a long and needless trip.

"Yeeaaaa, I have to pick up a package for my old boss before I can run off and do my training with Angel. I'm a really fast runner so it shouldn't take me too long." He chuckled to himself. "Hey before we run off, why don't we do a quick battle? I haven't been able to go against any of the Trainers in the forest since they were all tired from battling here on the path."

"I think that sounds good, I haven't seen a Trainer at all since I started, and I haven't seen any wild Pokémon around either." Justin replied with Karen taking up an aggressive stance by his side showing she was ready for a fight.

"Cool then let's go, I've been itching for a fight. Also, you won't see many Pokémon for a while, I think. There were a lot of Trainers in the forest and I think they scared off a lot of the wild Pokémon." Kyler commented as he reached for his Pokéball.

Justin couldn't hide his disappointment at hearing that, he hoped he would at least see some wild Pokémon on the path or maybe in forest. Maybe by the time he got there they would come back. This battle would make him feel better at least, win or lose he thought.

Pokémon X/Y - Vs Rival Music (HQ) 5-minute version.

"Here we go, show them what we are made of Angel!" Kyler yelled as he tossed his Pokéball into the free space between them. As the ball landed with a flash of bright light to reveal a good sized Weedle that began to cower at the sight of the Fox Pokémon.

"Weedle!" it cried as it saw what it was up against.

"Don't get scared angel, this fight is more in our favor than you think girl." Kyler yelled at his frightened bug Pokémon. "The Fennekin doesn't know how to use its fire moves yet!"

At that Angel's courage grew now that she didn't need to fear the Fennekin's fire attacks. Justin and Karen's faces told Kyler that he was right about his theory.

"Wait how did you know that? Did someone tell you?" He yelled as Kyler's Weedle stood on its rearmost legs to appear larger than it already was.

At that Kyler just grinned. "I'll tell you how I knew once this battle is over, Angel use String Shot!"

"Weedle!" Angel cried as she started spraying thick strings on webbing at the Fennekin.

"Karen quick dodge it and use Scratch!" Justin yelled, a bit too late as he was still trying to figure out how Kyler could possibly know she couldn't use her fire moves yet. Karen dodged as soon as she heard the command, but the order came too slow and right as she tried to leap out of the way one of her hind legs was webbed. This slowed her down just enough for her to not be able to close the gap between her and Angel to use her attack.

"Karen get the webbing off and use scratch before you get slowed more." Justin yelled as Angel repositioned away from his Fox Pokémon to prepare another attack. "Ekinn!" Karen growled as she attempted to rip off the webbing with her teeth.

"Quick Angel use String Shot again while she's standing still." Kyler said as he motioned to the Fennekin that was focused on tearing off the webbing.

Justin realized his mistake too late when Kyler ordered another String Shot. He made Karen an easy target for more attacks instead of just dealing with her slowed speed, now Karen would pay for his careless mistake. This string Shot had no chance of missing as it completely covered his Starter and immobilized her.

"Now's your chance Angel, charge in for a Poison Sting!" Kyler yelled pointing at the siting duck that was Karen.

"WEEEEDLLE!" Angel cried as she charged Karen as fast as she could and then brought her head down and rammed into the Fox Pokémon full force with her poison stinger on the top of her head.

"Fenne!" Karen cried as she was jabbed by the poisoned stinger and felt the poison hit home and start affecting her.

"Karen!" Justin cried as he watched his starter yelp in pain and saw drops of poison dot her yellow fur. "Quick use Scratch before she can retreat!" He yelled, his voice wavering as he saw how much his mistake had cost Karen.

"EKIN!" Karen barked as she attempted to swipe at the retreating Weedle. However, the String Shot completely immobilized her and she couldn't raise her paws fast enough to attack. Her vision was beginning to cloud slightly as the poison continued to damage her body keeping her in constant pain. She knew she couldn't stay conscious much longer and the Weedle, Angel knew that too. Then the Weedle did something that deeply angered her. She smiled, Angel was toying with her now.

For a moment, Karen forgot about the pain wracking her body as she glared angerly at Angel. She already lost a fight today to Oliver, Jessie's Froakie. If she lost another battle and against a Weedle, a bug Pokémon, a type she knew she beats in a fight, she'd never forgive herself and more importantly, Justin might lose faith in her.

She stopped trying to escape her webbed prison and as she looked at her taunting foe, she suddenly felt a heat in the bottom of her stomach. She didn't feel any pain in the moment even as her vision got more restricted. Something deep inside her told her not to be scared, and to simply open her mouth. She did as her instincts told her and what happened surprised everyone but Kyler.

"FENNEKIN!" She cried as a small ball of fire shot out of her and flew screaming towards a wide-eyed Angel. Despite Kyler's shouts Angel was frozen in fear as she saw the attack fly right at her, the only thing she could do was close her eyes. The attack caused a pain she never wanted to feel again, but much to her surprise it didn't take her out of the fight. She opened her eyes at the sounds of shouting to see a sight she hadn't expected. Her opponent passed out in a heap of webbing, covered from head to toe.

After her attack against Angel, Karen was suddenly overcome by pain caused by the poison in her body. She completely forgot about her condition in her focus to draw out her inner fire to strike at her opponent. She was proud in the moment as she threw out her attack against Angel but was then overcome by despair as she saw how weak her attack was from never using it before now. Soon after she lost consciousness from the poison, her last thoughts were of how she let Justin down again.

Music stops here

Justin ran towards his Starter as quickly as his legs could carry him. "Karen, are you okay? Wake up!" He cried as he began prying the webbing off her fur. Kyler just walked up calmly next to him and handed him a small yellow spray bottle. "Its an antidote bottle, spray it on the side she was stung on and she'll be fine. Weedle poison isn't strong, she's not in any danger so don't worry." Kyler told him as Justin took the bottle and started spraying where she was stung.

"She fought pretty hard for you, I can tell she likes you a lot. You two just need some more time together to practice, bad call to try to pull of the webbing in the middle of a fight though, but I figure you know that now." Kyler said as he walked over to a spooked Angel to pick her up not seeing Justin nod sadly at Karen.

Justin looked at his Starter Karen and picked her up in his hands, noticing how warm her fur felt compared to when he first got her and felt an overwhelming sense of shame. His poor reactions to battle situations had caused Karen to lose two fights and he felt like she would start to hate him as a Trainer. He didn't even notice as his tears landed on Karen's fur and evaporated on contact.

Seeing Justin's look of utter defeat while holding his Pokémon, Kyler walked back over to him. "Hey Justin, don't feel too bad kid. Everyone loses battles occasionally, you know what the difference is between you and me is as Trainers?" Kyler asked while petting his bug Pokémon to get her to relax in his arms.

Justin simply shook his head.

"Experience." He simply stated.

"I can tell this is either your first or second battle ever since becoming a Trainer. You learn to deal with each defeat better as time goes by. They stop getting to you and you just learn how to avoid making mistakes." He continued as Karen began to wearily open her eyes to see Justin teary face, meeting his with an equally saddened expression.

"You should both be proud though, it's not easy to use an elemental attack for the first time." Kyler said causing them both to look up at him. "Karen gave Angel a good scare." He continued as he tickled the Weedle's belly getting a giggle from his bug Pokémon.

"About that, how did you know that Karen couldn't use fire moves before now?" Justin asked as he started to wipe away the dried tears on his face.

"Oh, that's easy, some Pokémon look or feel differently depending on their type. When I went to pet Karen, I noticed how her fur wasn't warmer than the air. Fire types that can use their abilities usually feel really warm, hot even. So, I knew instantly that she couldn't use her type advantage versus Angel so I wanted to give Angel a chance to practice against a fire type so she wouldn't be so scared of fire.

"Its impressive to use Ember attack for the first time in a fight. Usually Pokémon don't learn moves until a fight has ended and they had time to reflect or unless they are trained for them." He said as he placed Angel on his shoulder.

"Ember huh?" Justin said as he hugged his Fox Pokémon to which she wagged her tail in response before placing her on the ground. "You tried your best Karen, that was really cool." He said as he pet the fur on the side of her head. He now noticed how hot she felt compared to the surrounding air. The area around her ears being the hottest, Justin quickly pulled his hand away from that spot because he felt he might get burned by touching her ears.

"Fennekin!" She yipped happily as he continued to pet her before standing back up to face Kyler.

"Just make sure you two train when you get the chance, even if it is for a few minutes every once in a while." Kyler said as he offered his hand in a farewell handshake, to which Justin shook with a look of determination in his eyes. "I expect you two to be a whole lot stronger when we meet up again. Good luck at the Santalune City gym bud." Kyler said as he began to jog away waving his hand along with Angel at them both.

Justin and Karen both copied the gesture and wished them both well. They both learned a lot from their battle with them and they both felt themselves grow stronger as Trainer and Starter.

They still had a to walk for a while longer to get to the forest, but they were soon going to run out of time before it got dark. As they began to walk Justin noticed that Karen was obviously tried from the battles from today and had slowed her pace down, she needed to rest to recover her strength.

"Karen do you want to go back into your Pokéball so you can rest?" He asked her. "I'll be fine walking the rest of the way by myself." He told her to which she simply replied by shaking her head. Justin didn't want to push his Pokémon too hard so soon after they met, so he stopped and picked her up and held Karen in his arms. After he picked her up, he began a light jog to try to get to the forest faster, unaware of her whining at being carried.

Despite what Kyler told them both, she still felt bad after losing her second battle for Justin and now she felt useless as he carried her. She wanted to remain out of her ball to show Justin how strong she was, and she could tough out the walk to the forest, but he didn't even let her do that. She continued to feel that way the entire time Justin carried her to the forest.

By the time they made it to the Santalune Forest it was almost sunset. Justin quickly looked for a spot to set up when they crossed into the forest. "Karen help me find a clearing, so we can set up, its gonna get really dark soon and we need to start a fire." Justin said as he placed Karen on the floor and looked around for sticks to make a campfire.

"Fennekin!" She barked happily as she took off into the bushes. Shortly later she ran back to him and barked excitedly at him to get him to follow her and began tugging at his pants. Justin followed her for a short while before they came up to a small clearing surrounded by bushes on one side and thin trees on the other.

"Good job Karen." Justin said with a smile on his face as he reached down to pet her. "Now we just need to start a fire and then unpack what we need to make dinner." He said as he began putting the sticks he found in a small pile and looked around for more to keep the fire going throughout the night.

A few minutes later he had more than enough along with a few stones to make the fire pit, so the fire wouldn't spread out of control. "Okay, now to get my flint and steel to light the fire." Justin said as he began to rummage in his backpack looking for it.

"EKIN!" He heard Karen bark, turning around to see the campfire had been started by a really proud looking Karen.

"Good girl, I didn't want to ask you to do it since you are tired from today's battles but thanks for starting the fire." Justin said as he walked over to the happy Fennekin and began to scratch behind her ear getting a happy yip from her.

Now he needed to set up for a task he had been dreading since this morning. Making dinner. Despite going camping with his father several times over the years, Justin never learned how to cook well. Every time he tried, he burned something or added too much salt, or it came out too dry. Justin was the kind of person to burn water.

To make it worse now he needed to cook for the members of his team. He could deal with having to eat his own salty soups or dry stews, but making his Pokémon eat that too? The thought alone made Justin shudder.

Thankfully his father had bought a cooking book for him along with simple ingredients for him to cook for him and his team. All he needed to do was follow the instructions carefully and there wouldn't be any problems.

Justin pulled out a small pot and the thin metal rods that were used to make the hanger for the pot. Today he wanted to try to make Whiscash soup with potatoes and Oran berries. The instructions looked simple and it said it didn't take too long to really make, which was a good thing since the sun had set a bit ago.

Justin spent the next hour cooking Whiscash for him and Karen, meanwhile Karen spent most of her free time between chewing on sticks or watching him cook, eventually doing both at the same time. By the time the soup was done it looked pretty good, easily the best-looking dish he has ever made in his life. The smell was even better, only the food his father made on special occasions smelled better. Now for the final test, was it edible.

"Food is almost Karen, just need to make sure it tastes good." Justin said as he lifted the ladle to taste test the Whiscash soup.

If Justin could describe the soup using only one word, he would have used Salty. If he could use a few more, he would have said it was the saltiest soup he had ever tasted in his entire life. It took all his willpower to avoid violently spitting out the soup, coupled with the fact that Karen was watching him with an expectant smile. Against his better judgment he looked at Karen and swallowed the soup and with as straight of a face as he could muster, he told her it needed a bit more time.

Justin spent the next twenty minutes adding water and more potatoes to try to absorb the awful salty taste, he could have sworn he didn't even add more than a pinch of salt. At this point both he and Karen's stomachs were grumbling madly demanding food. Try as he did, the soup still tasted incredibly salty, but not to as much of an offensive degree as it was twenty minutes ago. Both he and Karen didn't want to wait anymore, and he had a feeling it wasn't going to taste that much better if he left it cooking longer, at least they were both so hungry that they would eat it despite the taste.

Justin couldn't help but feel nervous as he poured a bowl out for himself and then feel terrible as he poured one for his Starter. Poor Karen had no idea what was coming to her, he really wished he could at least cook well for her. He didn't want to give her more reasons to dislike him.

As he took the bowl for Karen and gave it to her, he didn't have time to warn her before she started devouring it, almost threatening to eat the bowl. For a second, he thought she didn't notice the taste, that was until her tail stopped wagging and she completely stopped eating. She just continued to stare at the ground and then slowly eat the rest of her soup while keeping her eyes closed trying not to show how she really felt about his cooking.

Justin knew she was just putting on a brave face because she was hungry and there wasn't anything better to eat other than some wild berries, but those wouldn't be enough for a Fennekin diet. Justin followed Karen's example and closed his eyes shut and slowly ate all the soup in his bowl, any faster and he risked throwing up.

After what felt like hours both he and Karen had finished their bowls. Justin noticed that there was enough for one more bowl and it almost made him vomit at the sight. He covered the pot with the lid and unrolled his sleeping bag.

"Karen its about time to sleep, lets put you back in your ball so you can rest." Justin said to his companion while reaching for her Pokéball on his belt. Karen was not happy at the suggestion and seemed quite nervous.

"Fen fenne kin kin." She said to him while shaking her head with a look of nervousness.

"Really wish I could understand you girl, but I guess you are telling me you don't want to go back into your ball or you don't like being in there." He said to himself guessing at what she was saying. "Well that's okay, I won't force you to go back in, just don't run off in the night okay?"

Karen nodded in understanding at Justin and then walked over to his sleeping bag and laid next to it and gnawed on a stick.

Justin placed his backpack next to his sleeping bag and pulled out the journal his Father gave him to write in so he could remember his adventures when he was done. He took off his boots and socks along with his belt carrying Karen's Pokéball and placed the belt inside of his hat and laid it next to his bedroll. He laid there for a bit before opening his journal.

Justin wasn't sure what to write or how to write it. He did eventually decide to write into it as if he was sending a letter to his father, after all this was all thanks to him for supporting him in his dream.

* Today was the first day of my journey to get all eight badges and take part in the Talos Pokémon League. I have you to thank for that dad. *

* Karen is everything I wanted in my first Pokémon as a Trainer. I feel really dumb that I was worried about Jessie taking the Froakie, she named him Oliver by the way. I ended up getting a Fennekin and I named her Karen. Karen is really strong and fast and brave. But I feel bad for her, we lost our first match to Jessie and then our second match to a Trainer named Kyler. *

* I made some really bad calls and she got hurt the second time, I don't want that to happen again, so tomorrow I want to make sure we do some training, so I can get a better understanding of what she can do so I make better calls to keep her safe. *

* I just hope that she doesn't get sick of me before then, she looked really upset after losing both battles today. I made things even worse by cooking a really bad Whiscash soup. It tasted really salty, but I don't even remember adding that much salt. *

* I have a lot to learn, and I hope that one day we get to read this journal together, so you can see how much I grew as both a Trainer and as a person. *

* I have you to thank for this dad. I miss you and I'll make sure to call when I get to Santalune City. *

*Love, Justin. *

With that he closed his journal and he noticed Karen sound asleep at his side, her fur tickling his arm. He gave a smile at his sleeping Starter and put his journal away in his backpack. Then ever so slowly, he pulled her closer to him, so he could hug her, careful not to wake her up.

"Goodnight Karen, I'll make sure to get better as a Trainer, so I can take better care of you." He whispered to her.

With that Justin closed his eyes and went to sleep, hoping that he would do better as a Trainer the next day for his and Karen's sake.