"B-battle?" My imagination started painting vivid pictures of the possibly grisly outcome and I shuddered, trying to shake them from my mind.
"Well, of course! We're trainers now, and what else do rivals do? I mean, it should have been obvious," May smirked as Pepper strutted over to stand in front of her. I looked down at Trent, who was standing calmly by my side.
"Well... you ready for this, Trent?"
"Tree," he nodded, moving to stand across from Pepper and May.
"Well then, that's settled!"
"Yeah, I guess it is." I was never really religious, but I took a deep breath and said a quick prayer to calm my nerves. "Trent, use pound!"
"Pepper, dodge and use scratch!" With hardly any delay at all, Trent dropped down to all fours and charged at Pepper, who dodged to the side and slashed at Trent's side with his talons. In retaliation, Trent slammed Pepper with his tail, sending him flying backwards. "Quick, Pepper, scratch again!" Pepper managed to land fairly solidly and charged at Trent again, clawing at him. Trent winced in pain and backed away. "One more time, Pepper!"
"Trent use leer!" I didn't see exactly the face he made, since he was facing away from me, but it manage to make Pepper skip to a stop. "And follow it up with pound!" Taking advantage of his foe's lowered defenses, Trent again attacked with his tail, sending Pepper sprawling on the ground.
"Alright, I think that's enough," May said. "We still have a whole day of traveling to get done with, you know? No sense in tiring ourselves out before then." Trent smirked and helped Pepper up, obviously feeling that he'd won.
"Funny," I thought out loud, "battles always seemed to last so much longer on TV."
"Well, this is a practice battle, you know? I'm sure it would have lasted a lot longer if we were going until somebody fainted."
"Probably." May pulled out an Oran berry and a knife, sliced the berry deftly down the middle, and gave half to each of our Pokémon. "So, if we're both challenging the league, our best course of action would probably be to go to Petalburg and get the badge there, first."
"I dunno, that's Dad's gym. It'd feel weird to fight him first, you know?
"Ah, alright then. How about Rustboro? We still have to go through Petalburg to get there though."
"That's alright, I was going to check in with him when we passed through anyway," I shrugged. "Besides, you're the one who knows the region, not me.
"Yeah, I am," May smiled, starting down the road out of town. "And as the local expert, I say onwards to Route 101 and Oldale Town!" Without any further stalling, the four of us started on our journey. The road to Oldale was poorly kept; the road itself was only gravel, while the grass running along it got pretty high, when the trees weren't overshadowing it. We talked a bit as we walked, but by the time we were an hour in, we were too tired to keep talking other than the occasional inconsequential comment. By the time we finally stopped for lunch, we were ready to collapse.
"Oh jeez, who knew walking cross-country would be so exhausting?" May said as she sat down on a rare patch of shorter grass along the road.
"They always seem to leave this part out when they're telling the champions' stories." I didn't even bother sitting down, I just dropped my pack and fell backwards. "Ow."
"Worth it? That sounded pretty painful," May said as she handed me a sandwich.
"Totally worth it," I replied as I took the sandwich. "I can't imagine what tomorrow's gonna be like, though."
"Well, if we're lucky, we're gonna buff up immediately and be completely fine with it," May laughed. We ate in silence, and ended up just sitting there for an entire hour. I nearly fell asleep there in the warm sun and the soft grass, but eventually we had to get up. I climbed to my feet and picked up my bag, only for a Pokémon to jump out of it, my Pokédex in its mouth.
"Hey, get back here!" I moved to grab it, but Trent beat me to it, tackling the Pokémon and pinning it to the ground. "Hey, good job, Trent!" I took my Pokédex from the Pokémon, a Zigzagoon, and pulled out a Poké Ball. I tapped the orb to the Zigzagoon lightly, and it disappeared into a flash of red light, which got absorbed into the ball. The button glowed, signifying a successful capture. "Huh, pretty anti-climactic for a first catch."
"A Zigzagoon? Really? They're common as dirt, and only little kids use them," May said. I just shrugged and released my new teammate.
"Hey, it's new to me." I looked down at the Zigzagoon, who looked fairly scrawny. "Well hey there, you look kinda hungry. I bet you were just looking for food in my pack, weren't you?" She barked, and I gave her a berry from my pack. "Well don't need to worry about food now... Bonnie."
"Bonnie? Man, you have such weird names," May scoffed.
"Why must you be so cruel, May?"
"I'm not cruel, I'm just saying that it's kinda weird to use human names for your Pokémon. Now c'mon, we've only got another hour or so of walking left, then we can either go rest or go visit this lake north of Oldale. They say the water there is great for tired feet."
"Good, I don't know how much more walking I can take. Trent, Bonnie, you ready?" Bonnie barked and started walking, while Trent climbed up on my shoulders. "After today, you're gonna have to start walking, Trent," I laughed, but he just shook his head, and we all started walking towards Oldale again, Bonnie in the lead. Oldale was a bit smaller than Littleroot, but it had a lot more people in it. Despite this, it was still a pretty small town, the kind where most people knew each other, and something that affects one family would affect them all.
"The lake's just a bit farther," May said, continuing through the town. I could already see it before we left, and there were a few people and Pokémon sitting around, including a couple, a fisherman, and a young trainer playing with a few Zigzagoon. May kicked her shoes off and slipped her feet into the lake almost immediately, sighing in relief and sitting down on the shore. "Oh man, this is so relaxing."
"Well, I think we've earned a nice bit of relaxation," I said as I slipped off my own shoes. Bonnie bounded into the water and started splashing about, while Trent just sat down next to me. We spent a lot of time, just sitting there and watching the others nearby.
"Look at those Wingull, Spencer. It's rare to see such a large flock so far inland." I looked to where May was pointing and saw easily two dozen bird Pokémon flying all around the lake. The young boy from before was throwing some food up at them, and one would break away to grab it. I smiled, remembering feeding the Pidgey back home in Johto as a kid, and pulled out some of my own food. I threw a bit up into the air, and one of the birds broke away to catch it.
"No matter how old I get, feeding bird Pokémon is always going to be fun," I sighed hapily.
"Wiii," the Pokémon cried out, suddenly diving at me and firing a powerful jet of water from its beak. I rolled to the side just in time to avoid getting hit head-on, instead getting splashed with the mud it kicked up.
"Woah, what's that thing's problem?" I pulled out a Poké Ball and looked down at Bonnie. "You think you're ready to battle?" The Wingull flew down and landed on the ground a small distance away, and Bonnie jumped out of the water to confront it. The two were growling at each other. "Alright then, use tackle, Bonnie!" Bonnie barked and jumped at her foe, who started flapping its wings just a moment too late dode. Her attack hit head on, knocking the bird backwards, though it used the momentum to its advantage and started gliding back out over the lake.
The Wingull circled around several times, climbing higher each time, before diving quickly at Bonnie. "Dodge it, Bonnie!" Bonnie barked and, either because it she didn't hear me or because she thought her idea was better, charged her foe. The Wingull banked right at the last moment, soaring back out over the lake, before firing a water gun at Bonnie who stood her ground at took it head-on.
"Hey Spencer, how do you plan to fight this Wingull if it can just stay too far away for your Pokémon to reach it?" May was still sitting with her feet in the lake, laughing at my misfortune. I rolled my eyes and threw the Poké Ball I had in my hand at the Wingull, only for it to dodge it. The ball flew out into the lake, and the Wingull fired a water gun at me, hitting me in the gut and sending my back on my butt.
"Ow... stupid bird!" I threw another ball out as it dived towards Bonnie again, but it just rotated slightly and the ball flew past its wings. It fired off another water gun, and Bonnie flew back into my arms. "You okay?" Bonnie barked, and tried to charge back out at the Wingull, but I held her tight. "No way, I don't want anything happening to you. Besides, Trent already tagged in," I said, noticing Trent climbing up a tree.
"Tree!" He jupmed at the Wingull, ready to attack, but was stopped with another water gun, sending him crashing into the ground.
"Oh jeez, this is bad," I thought to myself as May started laughing at my predicament. This wasn't going well at all; both my Pokémon were injured now, and I only had two Poké Balls left. I fished them out and started brainstorming to try and get a plan, when Trent started climbing back up the tree. "Alright, Trent, get ready to get that Wingull!" My mind set, I stood up and tossed on of the Poké Balls. The Wingull dodged, just like I expected, but Trent used the distraction to jump on it, pulling it down to the ground with a pretty heavy thud. "Good job, Trent!" I walked up to the two and glared at the Wingull. "Stupid bird."
"Gul!" In one last act of defiance, the bird looked up and tried to fire off another water gun at me, but Trent had him pinned at an angle where that was just impossible. I laughed and tapped its wing with my last Poké Ball. The orb absorbed it and shook lightly, but the button glowed without much trouble. "Finally," I sighed, sitting back down by the lake. "That was not relaxing at all, and now I'm out of Poké Balls."
"That was pretty funny. You should consider starting a career in comedy with talents like that," May laughed. I reached down into the lake and splashed water up at her.
"Insults later, relaxation now," I said as Bonnie curled up next to me.