The walk along Route 112 was rather uneventful. Apparently Torchic make for rather awkward attackers. The only attacks Oliver knew were Scratch and Growl. When Oliver tries to use Scratch he has to stand on one leg and scratch with the other, which sets up for any easy counter in the form of Tackle, and whenever those counter Tackles hit I have to listen to the sound of a crying chick for the next five minutes. Trust me; it is not a pleasant sound. That brings me to his Growl attack. He doesn't even growl, it's more of a gurgle of his throat. I'm sure that'll send all of the wild Pokemon running.
Oliver was a Fire type, so shouldn't he technically know some Fire type moves. I mean its common knowledge that Fire types learn Fire attacks. Am I right? I know I'm right. Anyway, the only other attacks that my Pokedex said Oliver knew were Crush Claw and Night Slash. I never even heard of those attacks, and when I commanded Oliver to use them it didn't surprise me that he just looked at me quizzically and continued on his merry way. This had to be a test though. It was to determine the weak from the strong, the persistent from the feeble, and I am neither weak nor feeble. Soon Oliver would learn some Fire attacks. Yes, and then he'll evolve into a Combusken, and then again into…a Blaziken. I had somewhat forgotten that he evolves into the demon fowl known as Blaziken. But there were ways to stop evolution, right? I'll just need to find out one of those ways.
"Torchic!" Oliver's cry broke me out of my chain of thoughts, and I looked in his direction. A wild Poochyena had approached Oliver, and Oliver was actually fighting the pooch and not running behind my leg. Maybe because this Poochyena was quite smaller than any of the other ones we encountered, but hey it's all about the effort.
The Poochyena lunged at Oliver showing off its large teeth. His teeth then started to glow black and he bit into Oliver's torso, or midsection, or whatever that parts called on a bird. Oliver cried out in pain as the teeth bit deep into his body. What was this mad dog doing? None of the other Poochyena on the way could use this kind of attack. "Oliver return!" I held up Oliver's Pokeball and pointed at him, returning him at once. The little puppy then diverted its fury towards me. It lurched forward with the same black colored teeth and tried to bite me, but due to its small size I easily dodged. I didn't know what to do so I kicked it. That's right, I kicked the little booger. My Torchic may not be able to do a lot of damage, but my foot sure can. I only kicked a few feet away from me. I only wanted to stop it from attacking me, not destroy its rib cage. The evil dog just got up shook itself off then started running away. I was pretty sure that was going to happen. I've always heard that Poochyena will turn tail and run if their prey ever starts fighting them.
I let Oliver back out of his Pokeball. He looked around making sure that the Poochyena was nowhere in sight. "He's gone Oliver." The bird then let out what sounded to me like a sigh. We then continued on our journey towards the desert. I looked up at the sky and it was painted with all kinds of pinks, oranges and red, soon to be painted pitch black, which meant shelter would have to be found soon. Then I remembered what Lucas said. I heard "desert" and "night." Surely he must've meant to say to journey the desert at night. That makes sense doesn't it? Well it does to me, and that's all that matters.
I pulled out my map and looked at it. We were still a bit away from the desert, but that was okay, because that gave Oliver some more chances to train. Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for Oliver), not a lot of wild Pokemon showed up, save the ever common Wurmple, who's weakness was its oh so soft underside, which Oliver figured out when trying to kick the thing. Even still, the training they provided wasn't much. As a matter of fact it was worse than that of all the other wild Pokemon. Surely there had to be an easier way to train.
Then a crossroad came. To the right was the entrance to the cave and to the right was the desert. Although the desert was open to the light the moon provided, the cave seemed so much more inviting, seeing it lacked the howling winds and endless looking amount of sand, but Lucas's directions were clear. The short and safe way was through the desert…at night…with no one to notice you disappearing. Oh Arceus, I'm just spooking myself out. I took my first step onto the sand and my heart started racing.
No explosion. No instantaneous death. No anything. It really was safe. And I could see the glow of Mauville's City lights across the horizon. The walk would only be about two to three hours, and that's really short compared to the long, winding cave which I probably would've taken if Lucas hadn't warned me. Thank you Lucas.
Oliver took a step, and automatically noticed that his foot left a slight footprint. He grew giddy with this new information and started running around in a circle creating what he thought to be the most awesome thing ever.
"Okay Oliver let's get moving. We don't wanna waste too much time leaving our footprints in the sand. I wanna get to Mauville city as fast as humanly possible." Oliver looked at me then continued running in circles leaving his footprints in the sand. "Oliver, we don't have time for this." I knelt down and picked him up placing him in my backpack. It might've been slightly uncomfortable because he kept readjusting himself, but he must've found a good spot because after a few minutes I could hear a light snore coming from behind me. And with Oliver safely snuggled into my backpack and Mauville City a hop, skip, and a jump away, I started my journey into the desert.