The nice thing about working in Vientown, aside from the friendly and upbeat atmosphere, is just how close Chicole Village is. Barlow really prefers that we stay at the Ranger Base overnight, though on less hectic days, he would let me bunk down in my own house. That is, so long as I was up and back before everyone else in the Base woke up.
My first week as a Ranger was pretty interesting in itself – Crawford and I had gone on a few Vien Tribune deliveries, and along the way we ended up discovering a strange Pokémon controlling device in the cave at Nabiki Beach. I hadn't heard or received anything from Keith or Rhythmi, but I assumed no news was good news.
Even better, the Pachirisu I'd met on my One-Day Internship had become my Partner Pokémon! Barlow had teased me at first about releasing the poor thing, but afterwards officially granted me the power to have a Partner Pokémon. The gesture felt almost has a confirmation of becoming a real Ranger.
Since the discovery of the Pokémon Hypnosis Unit, (that was the temporary name, given by Luana) Barlow had sent out for Prof. Hastings of the Ranger Union, and between the discovery time and the time Prof. Hastings would show up, I had almost nothing to do. The Ranger Union hadn't registered any quests, there were no missions, and patrolling wasn't fun when there was nothing to do. Crawford would try and pass the time with jokes, but nothing seemed to work to make the flow move faster.
"Hey, you've got time, right?" I'd been sitting on the floor in the Ranger Base. I looked up at the owner of the voice – who, coincidentally, was Crawford. I motioned to the area around me – I'd just come back from a meaningless patrol to see that no headway had really been made with the Pokémon Hypnosis Unit or Prof. Hastings. He helped me up, and with clearance from Barlow, we left the Base.
"What possessed you to bring me out of boredom?" I asked him. He shrugged.
"I've got some places I think you'd like to see." My eyes lit up.
"You mean, I'll actually get to go outside of the Vien Forest?" Crawford chuckled.
"Only slightly – the place I actually want to take you is in the Vien Forest." He shrugged. "You just have to go a little out of the way to get there." It wasn't so much I cared about where we were going; I cared more about the fact I actually would get to see Almia beyond the Vien Forest for once.
Crawford made a few attempts to start a conversation, but I was too busy noticing and taking in my surroundings and Pokémon. We made more than a few stops so I could fill up my browser with various Pokémon. Crawford would only roll his eyes.
I could see a small town in the distance before Crawford grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the river. I honestly thought he was going to throw me in for a second before I saw a Floatzel – which, I'd never seen one before in my life – hopped into the water, and Crawford hopped onto its back.
"There's only one Floatzel around here. You'll just have to ride with me." I looked at the space left on the floating Floatzel. There didn't appear to be much, but I kind of waded into the water and sat on it, trying to mimic Crawford. It went much faster than I anticipated, and I clutched onto Crawford.
We zoomed past a small island with a bridge, and we got off of the Floatzel at a different dock on the way down. The area had a small clustering of trees, and appeared to go in either direction of me. I could hear a Leafeon, a Shiftry, and the unique cries of Kricketune.
"… I think I'm going to have a bruise for about a week, Kate. Your grip is pretty strong…" I flushed with embarrassment.
He led me around, and we came across a different area with patches of extremely tall grass, and the Luxio refused to leave me alone. We picked some berries (I ended up feeding most of mine to the pestering Luxio) and ended up just dipping our feet into the river.
"Kate, I wanna ask you about your friend. Keith." I looked at Crawford, my eyebrows raised.
"Sure, fire away."
"He was stationed in Fiore, right?" I nodded. "Do you know where?"
"Rrr…" I paused to think for a second. "Ringtown…? I think that was it… Ringtown…" I drummed my fingers on the ground. "Ringtown, that sounds right." I said, nodding slowly. It hadn't been a full week and I'd already almost forgotten where my best friend was stationed as a Ranger. Crawford exhaled.
"That's good; he'll have some really good Rangers to work with. Lunick and Solana are among some of the best Rangers I've ever met… I'm surprised they aren't Top Rangers, truthfully." He punched my arm. "You could have some stiff competition!" I laughed lightly – Barlow had said himself that I was the "star rookie" of the team, and I surprised everyone with my capture competency. I guess it had never been something for me to measure.
"Maybe. I'm sure I'll do better." I scrunched my nose. "He might've beaten me in a competition the first day of school, but I'm sure I can kick his butt." Crawford smiled.
"How often do you think about him?" I'd been swishing my feet around, but I stopped. I looked at him.
"Where… did that come from?" He flashed a grin at me and smiled.
"I'm just curious. That's all." He chuckled. "You two seemed to be quite the lovebirds, after all." I could feel the blood rushing to my face. "Trust me, at the Ranger Base, we've heard about some of your escapades. Especially the one about how you two came back pretty close to morning from somewhere that wasn't in your dorms… Hehehe, I think you should count yourself extremely lucky you weren't caught by Ms. April for that!" He laughed, and I covered my mouth with my hand. "Another favorite story of mine is how you two fell asleep on each other in the library-."
"H-How do you even know these things?" I spat out my words a little, and I was beyond embarrassed.
"Luana's younger sister was actually in your graduating class. She was stationed in Oblivia as an Operator, but, man… She'd come back with some pretty great things to say…" He was trying his hardest to not laugh at the face I was making, so I turned away from him.
"It makes me sad, so I try not to think of him so much."
"Hmm? What did you say? I didn't hear anything you just said." I turned back to him. He was still suppressing laughter, but not nearly as noticeably.
"I said, it makes me kind of sad to think about him. So, I try not to do it as much." I repeated, in a louder voice. He made a noise in response, however, anything he had to add to it was quickly deflated. I didn't know if it was because of the obvious shame I had in saying I didn't think about him much anymore, or something rubbed up against him in the water, but he fell silent. I chose to train my eyes on my feet.
The rest of our short-lived escapade wasn't nearly as awkward or sentimental, but it was a good thing to take my mind off of the strange happenings beginning to happen around Vientown. By the end of the day, I'd seen Crawford's smile enough to lift my own spirits – surely I didn't need to insist that Keith being in the faraway Fiore region was going to get me down, did I?
No. I was going to be just fine – with Crawford, with Barlow, with Luana and Elaine. They would take care of me as I made my way through the Ranger Ranks. And whatever new recruits would join us later.