Light whispers of wind crept through the trees, rustling their limbs as it passed by. It had no destination in mind, mindlessly slipping around leaves and bark as it surveyed the forest. With most pokemon embracing the night with sleep, there wasn't much to see. A few caterpie sat contently on a tree, some snoring as they slept. A nest of kakunas sat silently within a tree, waiting for when they could hatch. A pigeot, back from a late night's flight, settled onto her nest, keeping the eggs beneath her warm through the night. The trees ended, giving sight to a small road, heading off left and right beyond sight. With a sudden burst of speed thanks to the last of obstacles, the wind rushed to the opposite side of the road, where more trees stood, although not as thick. There was even less to see here, wind whipping through countless trees without even noticing. There. It was a human, laying in the crevice of a large tree. Two pokemon slept on either side of him, while he looked up at the stars. With that split second glance, the wind continued, mindlessly as ever.

Raven closed his eyes as the wind rippled through his hair. Just a breeze. The air settled soon after it had passed, reassuring him that they were safe. He let out the breath he had been holding. Opening his eyes, he pulled his head slightly off of the tree. He couldn't let himself fall asleep. Not here. It was too risky. Normally he'd be right alongside Berri and snoring the night away, but he was still too close to the city to feel secure. He wasn't sure how far or how long the police would chase him, but he didn't want to take any chances. He rubbed Berri's cloak and scratched behind Chewie's ear, smiling slightly. They were both sleeping so soundly…

He went over his escape plan again in his head. If there was danger, he'd have to put both Berri and Chewie in pokeballs. The latter of which would be difficult, not having actually caught Chewie yet. He would make a dash for whatever clearing in the trees was open, and…

He leaned back against the tree, admiring the stars. Of all the sights to see in the world, he would never get tired of stars. There was always a new pattern to see, a falling star to spot, a twinkle to catch his eye. He had long ago forgotten what actual constellations there were in favor of his own; they were much more tasteful, anyways. After all, who else would put a wurmple up in the sky? Or there, he could make out a chinchou. He grinned as another gust of wind went by him, his worries fading into the endless sky.

…

Berri squeezed his eyes shut, his body feeling far too tired for morning to have come yet. He stretched, opening his eyes a crack before shutting them again. He turned away from the bright light he had seen, the splotches of color visible even with his eyes closed. He could feel Raven beside him still, so it wasn't too late in the day. "Pity that."

"Oh, you're up?" Raven asked, patting him on the back. Berri groaned and rubbed his face into Raven's shirt. He laughed, "Oh, I know. I don't want to be either. But we might as well get a move on. Chewie's more than eager already."

"Ugh…"

Chewie was yipping happily as she chased her tail in the middle of the clearing, a few feet away from Raven and Berri. She spun in circles several times before pausing, waiting until she thought her tail was unsuspecting and unaware. She made to pounce again, only managing to land her paws on some dirt. She looked surprised that her target had vanished.

She lost interest as she felt his hand on her head. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she panted, looking up at her new friend. He smiled at her, rubbing her fur. "Sleep well girl?" Not really understanding him, she barked happily. Raven laughed. "Glad to hear it. Before we head out though, I wanted to see what you could do. Sound good?" She barked again.

Taking that for a yes, Raven patted her on the head. "Alrighty then. Hey, Berri?.." He turned when there was no response, smiling when he saw that the snorunt had fallen back asleep. Shrugging, he turned back to Chewie. "Well, I'll let him sleep some more. He had a bit of an exciting day yesterday… and so did you, come to think of it." Raven scratched the growlithe behind the ears, considering holding off her training. When she started trying to chew on his hand, he grinned. She was fine.

"Alright, Chewie. See my hand?" He held his hand out in front of her, palm facing her. She stared at it, not sure what she was supposed to be doing. "Try to tackle it."

He waited for several seconds while she stared at his hand. When she finally did move, she took a step close and tried to chew on his fingers. He rolled his eyes, pulling his hand away from her sharp puppy teeth. "I guess I should have expected that."

"Sno, snorunt, sno…" Berri said, looking as tired as he sounded as he walked up to Raven, leaning against him.

The boy laughed, patting Berri on the head. "Hey, if you're that tired, you can always sleep in the pokeball."

Berri immediately straightened up, shivering in disagreement. Chewie looked from one to the other, not really knowing what they were talking about. Raven shrugged, standing up straight. "Suit yourself. I guess we'll get going then, we can train later."

He picked Berri up, propping him on his shoulder as he patted the side of his thigh, a trick he learned the previous night that got Chewie to follow him most of the time. She was easily distracted, but it helped. She hopped up and down as he started off, heading back to the trail that led to Saffron City.

He had taken two steps on the road. There had been no one there before. He couldn't find a way around it. He sighed, giving up hope of ever knowing how the trainer had appeared in front of him. He looked friendly enough, a bit like a boy scout, yet he grinned at Raven with confidence rivaling those of gym trainers. "Hey! Wanna battle?"

Raven shrugged, giving Berri a push as he hopped off his shoulder to the ground. "Sure, why not?" He took a few steps back, patting his thigh to get Chewie to follow him. Berri rolled his head around, his grogginess having left to make room for excitement.

The boy scout perked up, reaching for his belt, which Raven noticed had two pokeballs on it. He nodded. Most people took their time collecting six pokemon to carry with them if they ever got that many. Pulling the first one off, the boy threw it at the ground. "Alright then! Go, rattata!"

After a brief flash of red light, a fierce looking rattata emerged from the pokeball. Raven hooked his thumbs into his pockets, balancing on one leg as he nodded to himself. It may not have been evolved, but this pokemon looked far more experienced than Mike's raticate. "Berri, you ready?"

"Sno!" the snorunt called, small ice crystals forming and falling around him as he waited in anticipation.

"Good, use powder snow!"

Berri opened his mouth, sucking in air. The other trainer pointed his finger out to the left, shouting "Dodge it!"

Just as Berri exhaled, blowing a mass of snow out, the rattata rolled to the side, landing on his feet and dashing towards the snorunt. "Quick attack!" The rattata slammed into Berri's side, cutting off the powder snow attack and sending Berri off the road, kicking up a cloud of dust as he landed.

Chewie yipped, moving to go to Berri. Raven knelt beside her, stroking her back a little forcefully. "It's ok girl, he's fine." She whined, sitting down as she watched anxiously.

Berri leapt out of the dust, flying into the air. He didn't look hurt at all, not even angry. He was grinning as he landed, dashing off to his left. Raven shrugged. There wasn't much point in trying to tell him what to do when he got like this.

Berri flew around the rattata, faster than one would think he could move. The rat pokemon twisted his head, getting a little dizzy trying to follow him.

The boy scout fell back slightly, his face contorted in thought. He snapped his fingers, face lighting up. "Tail whip!" The rattata spun around, forcing Berri to jump back to avoid being smacked by the curly tail.

"Headbutt!" Raven said. As soon as Berri's feet hit the ground, he sprung toward the rattata, ramming the top of his head into the pokemon's side. The mouse pokemon tumbled back, rolling across the road. Berri flipped, landing on his feet once more, using his momentum to jump again. He turned downward, falling down directly on the rattata in another headbutt. A small cloud of dust puffed up around them as Berri rammed his opponent into the ground.

"No!" The boy cried, clenching his fist.

Raven glanced down, stroking Chewie again. She whimpered, turning away as she rubbed up against his leg. He frowned slightly in thought, looking back up at the two combatants.

Berri had rolled off of the rattata, turning from side to side in what Raven knew was a stretch. The mouse pokemon wasn't moving, but he knew Berri wouldn't have seriously injured him.

The boy scout rushed forward, kneeling beside his pokemon. He sighed in relief when he realized that it had only been knocked out. "Good job, buddy," he said as he pulled out his pokeball, returning the rattata to its interior. He stood up, looking from Raven to Berri. "He's a really good fighter… I don't know if my second pokemon would even stand a chance."

Raven shrugged. "You can send him out if you want to, but you're right about Berri. He might love being chill, but he gets so worked up over battling it's hard for him to hold back."

The boy nodded, rubbing his second pokeball thoughtfully. He shook his head. "I can't. As much as I hate to say it, I forfeit. I need to train more before I can take you on… and I can't go back to Vermillion with both of my pokemon knocked out."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "You can't? Why not?"

He waved his hand toward the trees irritably. "It's the thugs that have been hoarding in these woods lately. I need at least one pokemon able to fight if they jump me."

Raven slowly looked toward the ground, scratching Chewie absent-mindedly. "Yea… better safe than sorry."

The boy scout nodded. "Yup. Do you come around these parts often?"

Raven shook his head. "Nah, I was just passing through. I might stop by again on my way home though."

The boy's face broke into a wide smile. "You should! That way, we can battle again! We'll be much stronger then."

Raven stood up, patting his thigh just to make sure Chewie didn't wander off while he wasn't looking. "I'm sure of it." He grinned, holding out his hand. "I'm Raven."

"Josh," he said, taking the offer with a firm grip. They shook hands, Josh waving slightly as he began walking down the road to Vermillion. "See you later!"

"Yea, for sure." Raven said, walking over to Berri, whose sleepy demeanor had returned once the heat of battle had worn off. "Ready to get going?"

Berri held his arms out, not even opening his eyes in response. Raven rolled his eyes, picking the snorunt up and setting him on his shoulder. "Jeeze, it's like you have an on and off switch. Chewie, let's go."

She barked, hopping over to nip at his pants leg, just missing as he started to walk. She entertained herself by chasing his legs as he made his way for Saffron City.

Which, as it turned out, wasn't that far from where they were. He wasn't sure if he had covered more ground that he had thought the night before, or Saffron and Vermillion really weren't that far apart. He had only walked for maybe another twenty minutes before the gates to Saffron City had come into view.

"Huh. It looks as big as Lilycove," Raven mused as he neared the city gates. Berri was uninterested, if only because he hadn't opened his eyes to look. Chewie didn't actually notice the city yet, due to her determination to teach those pant cuffs a lesson. There wasn't much to see as of yet save a few buildings that stood as tall as mountains, but from this distance it was hard to say if they were any different than average skyscrapers. As he looked down, he noticed that the building where he assumed the city limits were seemed… odd. Almost as if it were… moving.

Well, the building itself wasn't moving. There was just a crowd of people in front of it, all shifting around in varying manners. He cocked his head, slowing down a little. Crowds were never his kind of thing, and the fact that he might still have cops looking for him made him a little wary. None of them had the classic blue that he could see, though…

Berri, noticing his change of pace, opened his eyes, noticing the city for the first time. He grumbled softly, about to close them again when he, too, noticed the crowd. "Sno?"

"I don't know," Raven said quietly. He was coming up on the crowd now, able to make out individual people. They looked like they had no sort of pattern, with kids to elderly folk to what looked like pokemon trainers. Every now and then he saw a pokemon between the legs of the people, but not long enough to see what type they were. As he got closer, he could hear the clamor of voices, but all of them were jumbled together to the point of just making it noise.

No one took notice of him when he approached, letting him relax slightly. They would pay more attention if they were looking for someone. There were several families around him, and among them were stand-alone trainers. There seemed to be a lot more than he had seen at first, but maybe he wasn't looking very hard.

He approached the nearest person, a middle aged woman surrounded by three energetic kids. She somehow kept a hand at all of them at all times, something Raven didn't want to try to figure out. "Excuse me?"

She glanced up at him, smiling sweetly while keeping an iron grip on her kids. "Yes?"

Raven waved a hand at the crowd, shrugging. "What's going on here?"

"Oh, you don't know?" She asked, giving him a look that made him think he was one of her screaming tots too. "It's the battle tournament! The fighting dojo holds one every other month or so, and people come from all around to participate with their pokemon or just to watch."

Berri perked up at 'tournament', not quite hearing anything else. Raven, on the other hand, rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Fighting tournament? You don't say… why is it so crowded here then? Why aren't all of these people inside?"

The woman rolled her eyes, jerking a thumb toward the building. "The security at these gates is always poor, the guards are incredibly stubborn about letting people in one at a time. Not that it really matters though. Most trainers wait outside the gates to check out any competition anyways."

"Ahh…" Raven nodded, scanning around him quickly. Now that she mentioned it, he did notice several other trainers eyeing him and his pokemon. He shrugged. "Well, if they're looking for their competition, I'm not a part of it."

Berri stood up indignantly, looking at Raven with a cross look. "Sno, snorunt!"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "You heard her, didn't you? It's a fighting tournament. Fighting type pokemon would rip you apart. And just think; most of them probably know fire punch."

The snow hat pokemon cringed at the name of his least-favorite attack, but shook his head stubbornly. "Snorunt, sno sno snorunt!"

Raven rolled his eyes, ignoring him for the moment. He turned back to the woman, who had just been watching their banter with amusement. "Thank you for your help, mam."

Her eyes widened slightly, but returned to her cheery demeanor quickly after. "My pleasure sweetie. Good luck if you do end up competing!"

"Thanks." Raven walked away, not wanting to stay in one spot for too long. He was starting to get uncomfortable with all the looks he was getting from the different trainers. He thought about putting Chewie in a pokeball, but she seemed content to stay by his leg at the moment, and he didn't want to go there unless it was necessary. Berri, on the other hand, had folded his arms and turned the other way. "Oh, come off it. You know it would be a bad idea." Berri simply chilled the air around him, making Raven's shoulder go numb. More than used to it, he simply ignored it as he made his way through the crowd. If most of the people there were just watching people, he should be able to get in.

He found the area immediately around the door to be cleared, much to his relief. He opened it, seeing nothing but a small corridor inside with desks on either side. A man stood on the right side, looking more irritable than he had ever seen anyone at a desk job. Confused at the strange interior design choices, he closed the door behind him, a little surprised at the sudden lack of noise. All that was left of it was a slightly muffled roar.

Who he assumed was the guard eyed him impatiently, beckoning him over when he didn't move for a second. "Well, come on, I ain't got all day."

Raven furrowed his brows, thinking he should have just gone around it. He walked up to where the guard stood, placing his hands on the desk. "So, what do you need for me to pass?"

The guard shook his head, looking him up and down. "Nothin'. I jus' need to check and make sure you ain't a criminal. I was told this mornin' tat a kid comin' from Vermillion was to be taken to da police, but they didn' really give me a description. You know what a "Snorunt" is?"

Thinking quickly, Raven shook his head. "No, why? Is that a pokemon?"

The guard nodded, shrugging. "Yea, they said he had a Snorunt with him, but I dunno what it is either. I guess if you don't know, you can go. So get outta here." He jerked his thumb at the door opposite the one Raven entered from, finished with their conversation.

Raven rolled his eyes, heading for the door. Some people were just a little too dense. Berri looked at his curiously, but he just shook his head. As soon as he had left the building, he sighed. "I wonder how long that will chase me for…"

The city spanning before him was a little less majestic than he had imagined. It was smaller than Lilycove, to be sure, but without the beautiful backdrop of the ocean accompanying it, it was little more than an industrialized city. The skyscrapers he had seen were all clustered in the center of the city, surrounded by nondescript houses and other smaller buildings. He began walking left, figuring he'd find the pokemon center eventually. "Maybe I'll actually get to sleep in peace today…"