8,125/10,000

* The Thief Game*
* Chapter Five *
*The Boy Who Hit The Road*

The dark outline of the trees loomed overhead just right outside of the Viridian Forest. A slight breeze picked up, making the leaves rustle ominously. Inside I could hear noctowl hooting and—I'm pretty sure that was a houndoom howl.

"And now we begin, right?" Mattias glanced at Ansel, who in turn, growled and shook his head and looked pointedly at me. "Aww, but that's no fun."

"Boy, when you enter the forest, there will be all the supplies you need behind the first large oak." He projected an image of a tree. An orange bag was sitting inside a hollowed hole, something I would have never noticed on my own, but I suspected that was Ansel's doing. "I have also sent word to your mother and her mate. They will most likely wish to hear from you when you reach the next town."

"And this too," Mattias interjected like an excited child. In his hand was a trainer's card with my information on it. Except in place of my name, it had 'Spencer Pierre' instead.

"Why do I need a fake name?" I asked, taking the card and examining it closely.

"Because," he explained as if it were obvious. "If I figure out your name I win. It's like, a Rumble-stilt-skin thing."

"Master, I think you are meaning to say, 'Rumpelstiltskin'. As in, the fairytale in which the troll turns straw into gold for a young maiden in exchange for her first born?" Ansel said, for my benefit more than Mattias'.

"Yeah, that one. Anyways, it's a rule." Mattias folded his arms and nodded in affirmation.

"Does he make these rules up on the spot?" I directed the question at Ansel. Much to Mattias' dismay, as he looked quite offended.

Ansel ignored his trainer. "Occasionally," he said airily. "I do know of at least ten of his rules. That one is new, however."

"That's just 'cause I had it in my head the whole time." Mattias stuck his tongue out at the psychic.

"So…" Something else had been bugging me since the beginning of this whole mess, and I don't think I ever got a straight answer. "what happens if I lose exactly?"

"You go to jail, and I get my pokémon back." Mattias shrugged as if it were nothing.

"How will that work exactly?" Despite my earlier fears, it didn't all add up. After all, when was the last time the law sent a ten-year-old to prison for thievery?

"Registered trainers are also registered adults. Although it does not happen often, trainers such as yourself have been detained for less. " Ansel told me, probably reading my thoughts. "The pokémon you stole is quite dangerous, which will result in a more severe punishment."

"Great." It was not great at all. But at the same time, another thought struck me. "How will they prove it was me?"

"If they can't, then you'll continue on. No harm done." Mattias sounded strained. He was undoubtedly edgy from me not having started yet. "Now can we go?"

I felt for the pokéballs in my pocket and pulled them both out, examining them together for the first time. There wasn't much to distinguish the two apart, except now I could see a soft white glow emitting from one. I realized that was the one with the stolen pokémon in it. I thought back to when I was still going to school remembering the white glow meant that the pokémon was alive.

I also realized I had no idea what the pokémon was. I had only been speculating until this point, but I should probably get acquainted with him before I entered the forest. I glanced at Mattias, who had been distracted by something in his bag. I was about to ask him for permission to release the pokémon, but then I recalled that this was my pokémon, and I could do almost anything I wanted with him.

In a blast of white light, the pokémon appeared in front of me and took shape. Mattias suddenly looked up and gasped before grabbing my shoulders and roughly pulled me into his chest just as the creature hissed.

"Devin! Shit, I knew I was missing a step." I whipped my head up to face Mattias who was looking quite nervous. "Easy girl, this is Spencer. He is going to be your trainer."

The pokémon was big, green, and I couldn't remember the name of it, but it looked really angry at something. Yet, I was more stuck on the fact that Mattias said 'girl'. "Devin is female?" I asked stupidly.

The creature let out an unearthly screech directed at me as she apparently didn't appreciate I had misgendered her.

Mattias winced. "Yes, Devin is a girl scyther."

Devin approached us cautiously, glancing wearily at Ansel who was glaring daggers at her, daring her to hurt his trainer. She sniffed Mattias, and then as if suddenly recognizing him, made some kind of purring sound as she butted her head into his shoulder affectionately. She then suddenly took hold of his sleeve in her mouth and attempted to jerk him away from me. It was pretty hard to do though, seeing as Mattias still had me in a death grip.

"Scyy," Devin complained. She poked his arms with her nose.

"No, Devin, this is Spencer—" she hissed at my fake name. "—and he is your new trainer," Mattias said, pushing her face away from him. "Sorry, she doesn't like new people. Or surprises."

"You forgot to tell her?"

"Ssscy!" Devin hissed. Something told me she didn't like it when I talked.

Mattias shrugged. "Oops."

"Young Scyther, if I may?" Devin snapped her head to Ansel. She fluttered her wings which were probably a pokémon's way of telling him to continue because they went into a staring game. After a few minutes, she turned to Mattias with a confused expression, which I only recognized because it looked uncannily like a growlithe's.

He patted her face. "Okay, can you do that?"

She flared her nostrils and scanned me over with a glare. She eventually turned back to Mattias and nodded. She didn't look like she was happy with it, but she at least wasn't growling at me anymore.

"Good." He smiled, scratching under her chin while she made that strange purring sound again. "It's strange though, I thought I had explained it to everyone..."

I wondered if it would be a good time to try to run again, but Ansel's threat prevented me from moving. He would probably be watching me even if Mattias wasn't around too…

"Master, now that things have been settled, wouldn't you say that it is about time the child was on his way?" Ansel's eyes were unnerving in the darkness.

"Right!" chirped Mattias. "Devin, you be a good girl. Spencer, you can recall her now."

"You're not coming?" I had assumed he would be considering how clingy he has been so far.

"No, I can't. That is also against the rules." Mattias frowned and looked a bit saddened by that fact even though technically they were his rules.

"Well, great, I'll be off then." Devin looked offended as I recalled her, but if it was because I thought it was great that Mattias wouldn't be traveling with us or me recalling her I wasn't sure. But, thinking back on how she reacted when I first let her out of the pokéball it could have been something else entirely.

"Good luck, Spencer!" Mattias unexpectedly wrapped me into a tight ursaring hug. "My gods, they grow up so fast." He began sobbing hysterically while I stood awkwardly with a grown man on my back.

"…What are you doing?"

"Well someone has to act like my parents did when I left, or it wouldn't feel like a journey," he explained through the tears.

"Okay, well, while you do that, I'm going into the scary dark forest with no adult supervision." Saying it like that somehow made it more exciting.

"Goodbye, son!" Mattias wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve while waving the other one wildly, even though I wasn't more than a few steps in front of him.

"Ha-ha, I'm not your son," I said, fleeing into the forest. When I reached the tree line, I glanced back but I immediately wish I hadn't because Ansel's eyes were still watching me from afar.

Yup, he would definitely be keeping a close eye on me.

* T * T * G *

"Food…" I gasped. "Need. Food."

I collapsed onto the dirt forest path clutching my stomach. I had left Mattias an hour ago and was now hopelessly lost. I had picked up the orange bag that Ansel had directed me to, but found it didn't contain a ready-made meal. Still, it was nice considering it was a trainer's bag. Built with the same technology as pokéballs, is could virtually store anything that would fit past the lip of the bag. Its only limit was that it couldn't store a living thing.

I opened the bag back up, looking for any hint of something I could eat. But, it was still the same things I found before, none of them edible.

I wondered if I would need to hunt for my own survival.

My stomach growled again. No use, I thought miserably. I'm going to starve before I can catch anything, let alone prepare it.

A scyther then leapt out in front of me, a dead rattata hung limp from its mouth.

"Ther?" it questioned, dropping the rodent's corpse. I however, was still screaming.

It took me a few moments to calm down and realize the scyther was Devin. To be fair, I hadn't let her out. She must have done it herself somehow without me noticing.

The giant insect snorted a few times before shish kebab-ing the dead creature onto one of her scythes. She then ate it whole.

"Gross," I muttered as rodent guts dribbled down her chin. I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore as she looked me dead in the eyes and licked them from her scaly lips.

She hissed at me before leaping back into the dark forest.

"Okay, you do that." I stood up, fixing the orange bag back to its designated spot between my shoulders as a shrill shriek sounded but was immediately silenced by who-knows-what. I hoped it was Devin.

I walked what felt like forever in the darkness before I had to stop again. I was getting frustrated from tripping over roots all the time. Not only that, but I could feel my eyelids drooping. Along with food, I was also missing a watch, but my guess was that it was very late. Sighing, I leaned up against a tree. It couldn't hurt to rest my eyes a few minutes…

I awoke to a battle.

Devin was fighting off a large shadow. It was still dark, so I couldn't see the pokémon, but it was powerful enough for my scyther to be struggling against it.

"Scyther!" Devin cried, lashing at the creature with her scythe. I could tell it hit strong because the creature yelled in pain and her scythe came back with a thin trace of blood.

She hissed at the other thing as it swiped at her, catching one of her wings. She stumbled, but didn't fall down. It actually seemed to make her angrier and she attacked in frenzy. She slashed this way and that, while the creature was overwhelmed and eventually fled back into the forest.

At that point I realized that I should have been scared out of my mind, but all things considering, that was probably the most normal thing that has happened to me all day.

Plus I was still groggy.

"Scythe," Devin growled, swiveling her head to face me. "Scy, scyther!" She brought one of her scythes close to my face as she continued screaming at me.

"I-I don't understand what you're saying," I admitted, fearful of the razor sharp weapons she wielded.

She gritted her teeth and pointed to the tree I was leaning against. I squinted up at it, unable to see what she meant. "Scyther." She stuck her scythe into the trunk.

I reached into the orange bag and came out with a flashlight—one of the more useful things Ansel packed—and clicked it on, gasping at what I saw.

All across the trunk were deep gorge marks left behind by presumably an ursaring, or something of that nature.

I wandered right into an ursaring's territory.

"Oh."

Devin nodded, looking smug with herself. Her breathing was slightly labored though, I noted. She was probably still tired from the battle with the pokémon.

"Hey, I have some berries, and if you want—" I wasn't able to finish before she leapt back into the forest. "Thanks…"

I was about to slip the flashlight back into the bag before I realized I could have used it before now and mentally face palmed myself. I really needed to sleep. My stomach rumbled again. And I need some food too…

So I continued on again, this time looking for somewhere to set up my tent. Preferably not in a feral pokémon's nest this time.