David woke or rather decided to get up.

He hadn't slept well if at all. Each loud Pokemon that called out in the night had him turning and listening anxiously. Most of the cries petered out and the caller didn't come any nearer, but something had brushed against his tent twice. Both times had David clutching at a repurposed tent spike anxiously.

Pokemon calls weren't abnormal during his stay in the clearing but they came from further away. There had been a definite barrier between the surrounding woods and the packed dirt camping area, not a physical one but a human presence that Pokemon avoided.

"Morning Pidgey." David whispered to the ball that lay by his neck.

Usually the pokeball would be buried deep in his backpack while he slept, the metal ball pushed out of the way so he could use the backpack as a pillow. He couldn't convince himself to pack it away last night however. Not when Pidgey was hurt protecting him.

To David's fear there was no movement from the ball. Sighing he undid the tent's zipper and started to pack up.

While packing up the tent he found evidence of his night time visitors in the grass. Small red and purple hairs had been caught in the ropes and tent seams. The purple he could attribute to Rattata, foraging in the dark to avoid the large Meowth presence in the area. The red hairs were unknown which he didn't enjoy. He would need to think if he wanted to return to the area again tonight.

His chosen campsite for the night was upstream and to the north of the clearing. It was likely towards the edge of the badgeless zone but that was fine with David. Anything to reduce the chances of being found.

Once he had cleaned up all signs of his presence, bar the divot in the grass, David set off the stream. He would wait there until Pidgey woke up.

David had one goal today and that was to hide. After setting up a campsite yesterday, he had spent the rest of the day replaying the morning over and over. He reached one conclusion.

He was fucked.

After being ambushed by Team Rocket, he had run through the city streets to the Pokecenter. He burst inside, drawing everyone's attention and then, in front of a crowd, blamed Team Rocket and had the police called. The police that would not help him.

David didn't know much about Team Rocket but he had no doubt his performance would get back to them. And that they would be upset. Criminals were rarely happy with their victims going to the police. Snitches get stitches and all that.

The rest of his day had not been very productive after that realisation. He had liberated one of the tent spikes which wouldn't help much against a Pokemon, but the weight of it in his pocket reassured him.

The only work he managed to do was leafing through his survival guide to prepare for the night. Most of the recommendations, like getting a powerful Pokemon to scent mark the area, he couldn't use so he went with a minimal approach. The book had notes on where to find pungent herbs that, when crushed, would help keep Pokemon away. Based on last night these herbs had mixed results but David wondered if this was what repels were based on.

David fished out the survival guide and looked into tips for travel. Between the season starting and Team Rocket, it might be a good idea to get out of Saffron as soon as he had a badge from the gym.

After an hour or so of watching the small Magikarp chase after the growing tadpoles in the stream, Pidgey's ball shook. David picked it up with hesitant hands.

When he released her last night for dinner, Pidgey had been woozy. She didn't react to him and after devouring one and a half Oran berries, she fell asleep again without even chirping to be recalled into her ball. She moved stiffly and the balding spot on her right wing was obvious but David was unable to see any further damage. The nurse had told him that she would recover but he couldn't help but worry. He held himself back from examining her. She wasn't well enough to be poked and prodded.

David closed his eyes by rote to avoid the flash as he pressed the button to release Pidgey. He heard Pidgey's tired shrill before he saw her.

"Good morning Pidgey." David said as she began to hop in a circle. Her reduced speed was noticeable.

David cut open her food sachet and set it down in front of him. He waited for Pidgey to turn fully, feeling worse as he was given a full view of her damage wing. The skin underneath was dark and bruised. Pidgey let out a chirp as she finished and began hopping over to the food. She stopped and bent forward to investigate the food.

David tensed as she paused with her beak above the sachet. He had no more berries, the remaining half Oran had served as his dinner.

Pidgey lifted her head and stared at him. She let out a light shrill and hopped towards him and the backpack to his side. David sighed and pulled the backpack to him. He opened the drawstrings and titled it forward.

"There's nothing else Pidgey. I'm sorry."

Pidgey was not dissuaded and continued to hop forward. She hopped up to his backpack and.. kept going.

"Pidgey?" David asked.

Pidgey let out a low squawk behind him. David leant forward, making to get up but froze as a chill ran down his spine. A second later the sensation passed and David fell back down.

Pidgey let out a smug chirp and continued hopping around to his left. David turned to look at her as she came back into view. She watched him for a second before puffing up. She tilted her head back and beak up and let out a loud chirp.

David watched her in confusion until Pidgey began to spread her wings. Her left unfurled smoothly but stopped as her right shuddered. Pidgey's chirp turned into a pained squawk.

"Pidgey!" David hissed and scooted himself over. She needed to rest that wing.

As David approached she retracted her wings and hopped back out of his reach.

"Pidgey?" David asked, confused and worried. She hadn't acted like this before.

Pidgey shook a little to settle before holding her beak high and hopping back over to the food. She dug in.

After her meal, Pidgey returned to more normal behaviour and hopped over beside David to settle in a roosting position. Together they watched the Magikarp and tadpoles swim by. Based on the way that Pidgey leaned towards the water when a Magikarp got a little too close, she wasn't watching for the same reasons as him. David even needed to put his hand on Pidgey's head a few times to keep her from falling in.

A flash of red upstream caught his eye. At first he thought it was a large Magikarp coming up for air but as it bobbed closer it was clearly a Razz berry. David shifted around to lie on his stomach. Extended over the stream like this, he was able to catch the Razz berry as it floated by.

David inspected the perfectly ripe berry before turning to Pidgey.

"Want to go for a search?" He asked.

David set Pidgey down and slipped his backpack off his back. He panted as he looked back downhill. Between carrying Pidgey and his backpack, the hike up had been a workout. The loose scraggy rock had made it a slow painful walk up. Without a free hand available to catch him a tumble was out of the question. A couple of close calls left Pidgey making shrill calls but he had made it.

David turned to Pidgey, wiped the sweat off his brow, hefted his backpack and then her up.

"Nearly there I hope."

He set off up the diminished stream again. The Razz berry bush still eluded him after an hour of walking. He knew he was out of the zero badge area now but he wasn't too worried. A few glimpses through the thinning tree cover revealed Saffron in the distance. This close to the city he was probably safe.

Pidgey chirped and David's eye flicked down to her before turning to face the direction she did. He scanned the bushes and sparse trees but he saw no berries.

Pidgey chirped again and wiggled forward in his hands. David slowly moved forward, watching out for any movement. Step by step he walked forward until a squawk from Pidgey stopped him. David scanned the area but saw nothing. He looked down at Pidgey and followed her gaze to the ground.

"Ugh Pidgey." David groaned and moved back.

He had nearly stepped on the carcass of what looked like a Caterpie. It was half buried in the above ankle grass. Half the Pokemon had been eaten and he was starting to smell rot.

Pidgey let out a Chirp and wiggled forward.

"No Pidgey! No roadkill."

David turned her to the side and away from the carcass. They hadn't found any berries yet but they weren't this hungry.

Pidgey let out a loud squawk which left David wincing and looking around.

"Sssh. Whatever did this might still be around." David murmured to her.

Pidgey wiggled fiercely and with a sigh David set her down. Maybe this was a Pokemon thing. Hopefully she wouldn't get sick. As Pidgey hopped towards the increasingly vile smelling carcass David looked away. Hopefully he wouldn't get sick.

Seconds later Pidgey let out a loud chirp and David turned back to her. She hopped towards him with her beak held high. Something in her beak glimmered silver. As she reached David she dipped her head and a silver ring fell on the ground.

David bent over and picked it up. A small grey stone was set on the ring. A vague memory of a request for a missing ring on the noticeboard at the Ranger's office stirred.

"Great job Pidgey." David murmured as he examined the band.

The Razz berry bush when they found it was slightly disappointing. David harvested three ripe berries from the bush, but after finding two berries floating downstream he had hoped for more. Some small desire for the bush to have tens of berries like the ones back home did.

The silver ring in his pocket would have made the trip worth it by itself though so the berries were an extra bonus. Any reward would be worth more than a berry or two.

David picked a different route down the hill which brought him more luck. Another bush full of ornament shaped berries. This new kind with yellow and green patterns were scattered across its dimpled skin. David was able to pick three ripe ones which he added to his crate.

With a successful haul, he headed back to the campsite from the previous night. After considering it, if nothing attacked him last night they were unlikely to do so tonight.

Along the way he told Pidgey about the berries from home. How you rarely found bushes out on a walk but you could buy berries by the hundreds in most shops. That 'berries' had become a flavour and most berry flavoured food didn't include berries. If his voice cracked slightly as he spoke about his grandmother's blackberry jam, who was to know.

"Choose." David instructed and set a Razz and Aspear berry down in front of Pidgey.

It hadn't been hard to identify the yellow berries with the help of the survival guide. Unfortunately they were a common variety which made David place the Aspear a lot closer to the roosting Pidgey.

Pidgey shuffled up and bit and leaned forward to examine the Aspear. After a second she grabbed it with her beak to pull it closer.

David smiled and reached for the Razz. Another 35P tomorrow.

Pidgey froze as she picked up the berry before jolting back and letting the Aspear fall. She let out a squawk and hopped away from the berry.

"Pidgey?" David questioned as he looked at the Aspear. A small bit of juice leaked out of a cut in the side of the berry but nothing had changed.

Pidgey shot forward and grabbed the Razz before retreating away.

David's shoulder fell as he reached for the Aspear.

'I guess I counted my chickens before they hatched.'

He brought a finger to the cut and brought a dab of the juice to his mouth. His lips pursed involuntarily.

'Sour.'

Endnote:

A nice cooldown chapter with some bonding time and a reveal. There might be a team to be made here yet.

I've started posting Pokewild on RoyalRoad as I revise earlier chapters. Please pop by if you're interested in a nice interface, better commenting abilities, the chance to correct those niggling spelling mistakes or just to support the story.

Haydoge - That's kind of what I'm aiming for. MC will have messed around with some of the practical applications of his course at home with small kits. I'm being a bit cheeky with the broad 'Engineering' label, like you said it's a vast field and I'm not planning to narrow down his specialisations for a while.

Walkmanapprenticewordsmith - Glad to hear. I'm going for that 'Make you feel like spiderman' vibe with lots of realism but I don't want to make it a thesis on how the world could work.

GoMagikarp - Lowest.. Well I can't say that but the rise is coming. The beginning arc is nearly over and the tough times will become more cyclic from there (Got to have some challenges). On a side note, ever heard the quote: 'Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.'

Exotic4M3 - Bitta recovery, bitta worldbuilding, bitta character building. I really enjoyed writing the other characters and trying to figure out how'd they'd act with the information they knew.

frankieu - The police can only go off what they know, even in this universe and David wasn't in the right mind to pick up all the social cues.

Zyxis Ouroboros ReArchtypist - I'm still considering how to do naming. Pokemon are given names in this world, Fuzzy, Box, etc, but Pokemon also have an intelligence that is unlike ours. Hopefully you'll enjoy how it plays out.

TheHiddenLettuce - The police won't be useless in this world but they'll be limited like the police are everywhere. Lack of information, prejudice, cognitive biases and workload will all act against them. Psychic types in this world will begin to be addressed soon but they won't be a catch all.

BurningSoul - Thanks for reading and I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far :) I love Pokemon but I found the world didn't grow as I did. Danger and adversity can make such amazing stories.

HayakuHayaku - Thanks for reading and I'm glad you're enjoying it so far :)

Trainer aeltios - No worries and thanks for the ideas :D I'm not sure David will be able to create something so advanced. I think the ability to design and create a deploy-able shield is a bit beyond David. A shield though is along the right lines. Perhaps I've gotten a bit caught up in comments about weapons and I've thought ahead too much.