I woke up around six o'clock the next morning, used to being up early during the summer to help my parents with their work in the fields. Considering that I had made a decision that had irrevocably changed my entire life the day before, I had slept surprisingly well. And noticing that I had neglected to do so the previous night, I decided to take a closer look at the room that would be my home for the foreseeable future.
The bed I had slept on was the bottom of a twin sized bunk bed that stood about an inch away from the room's light beige wall, on the left side of the room. There was matching bunk bed was set against the opposite wall as well. Both of the beds bore clean white sheets and lavender covers. All of the furnishings, such as the dresser and the bed frames, were made of dark wood. The only window in the room was directly across from the door, with curtains that matched the bed. Once I looked in the closet and dresser, I found a collection of sturdy, neutral toned girls clothing in multiple sizes, all of them embossed with the pokeball emblem. After I found ones there were my size, I proceeded to dress myself.
Once I finished with the rest of my preparations for the day, I wandered downstairs for some breakfast. Nurse Joy gave me a welcoming smile from her place behind the medical desk, but beyond that the Center seemed deserted. There were a few more people to be found in the cafeteria. The man at the food line had a bland, forgettable kind of appearance if you didn't take into account the thick, vivid scar that ran across his throat. He gave me a brief smile before wordlessly gesturing at different selections of breakfast food, spooning the ones I gave approval of onto a plate. Once he was finished serving up the food, he put the plate and a carton of milk on a tray and slid it to me over the counter without a single word being exchanged.
I sat by myself at one of the empty round tables, trying to observe the other trainers in the room without being too obvious. There were seven of them in all. Three women who looked like they were in their twenties were all sitting together, conversing amiably. A man and woman in their thirties, who I thought might be a couple, sat together at another. The last two were sitting by themselves as well, a boy that looked around my age and a different Nurse Joy than the one I'd passed on my way to the cafeteria. I thought I noticed some of the trainers studying me as I tucked into my meal, and resolutely kept my eyes trained on my food in an effort to avoid unwanted eye contact. In the time it took me to eat my food, only the teenage boy finished his meal and left. As soon as I was done eating, I made a beeline for the library, which was empty except for the worker at the desk.
The first thing I did was read through the manual I'd been given the night before. I found that Nurse Joy had been honest when she said most of the information within had been covered by Clyde on the walk over, though there were a few pieces of information that I found useful. It was also nice to go through the material at my own pace, since Clyde had crammed so much information into the speech he'd given us the previous night. Reading through it only took me half an hour though, so I decided to do a bit more studying before I had to meet with the Gym Leader. I was mostly interested in looking up what kind of pokemon were commonly found around Aspertia, though I also did some checking up on weaknesses that I might be able to exploit in the different pokemon types if I ran into them. The last thing I ended up looking into was which pokemon were particularly strong or rare in the Unova region, led purely by my curiosity. It was my end goal was to become a strong trainer, after all. And though it hadn't been something I'd originally thought would be useful for my Trial, some of the information had been quite interesting, and by the time I headed over to meet with the other trainers, I had the beginning of an idea developing in my mind.
The group of us who'd been Reaped ended up meeting in the front area a few minutes before the set meeting time. The other two girls stuck beside each other, and Zachary lurked near the two older boys, but no one was talking. While we all waited for the Gym Leader to arrive, I caught youngest boy looking at me, and tried to give him an encouraging smile, but his only response was to blush and quickly look away. When Clyde arrived, he merely grunted before for us to follow him. His face was drawn, and his eyes looked tired as we followed him out of the Center.
We followed him the few blocks back to the gym again, going in through a side door. It opened into a room full of weapons; a deadly collection of knives, swords, spears, and staffs, with a few bows and arrows thrown in for color. After we'd all filed inside, Clyde turned to face us.
"During your Trial," he began in a rumbling voice, "you will be alone in the wild without any protection. As such, you will each be provided with a knife and one other weapon of your choice in order to defend yourselves. The knives will be yours to keep, and if you end up wanting to keep whatever other weapon you choose," he said, tossing a knife into the air and catching it by the hilt, "the Gym will allow you to keep it on loan until you manage to pay it off." He looked everyone in the eye, his face serious. His face looked old, a thought I'd never entertained before, despite his gray hair and abundance of wrinkles. He always seemed so much larger than life. "I strongly encourage you to find a weapon that suits you and train yourself to use it. Even if you pass your Trials and end up with a team of strong, well-trained pokemon, there is always a possibility that the danger will slip past your team and get to you. It always pays to be prepared. Now remember," he said abruptly, with a loud clap of his hands. Several of us flinched in surprise. "One knife, and one weapon of your choice." He waved his hands at us. "Get going."
I was the first to move, deciding to look through the various knives to start with. I lifted a few, testing their weight and the size of the hilt in my hands, before settling on a simple, mid-sized knife that looked big enough to do some damage if needed, but not so big that the grip and weight felt cumbersome in my hands. The hilt was bound with worn black leather and it seemed like the blade would be durable. As I began to browse through the other weapons, it was clear that there were more swords available to choose from than any other kind of weapon, which made sense after some thought. Swords are capable of dealing a lot of damage and they have a better reach than knives. It didn't hurt that they also had the advantage of looking cool. Still, the sharp edges of the swords made me a nervous, so I moved on.
I was able to spot a few spears when I looked around, but all of the shafts were made of wood. When I tried to picture myself using one to defend against an attacking pokemon, the imaginary spear snapped in half. I didn't know if that was something that would really happen, of course, but I steered clear nonetheless. I spent a good amount of time considering a heavy duty set of metal batons, but I eventually decided to look for something with more reach. I didn't particularly want to get quite so close and personal with whatever wild pokemon I ended up encountering. I figured that the bows I noticed would most likely take to much time and practice to really be of much use. Finally, my gaze touched upon the staffs. There were only three of them, and two - like the spears - were also made of wood, but the last one was a simple rod of dull blackish metal. It was about an inch thick and several inches taller than me. It was heavy when I lifted it, but I thought it would make my hits heavier too, if I could learn to deal with the weight.
Having made my decision, I rested one end of the pole against my right shoulder in order to relieve the stress of the weight on my arms, and carried it over to where several of the others had already gathered, most of them having predictably selected varying types of swords. The last person to choose her weapon was Linda. She headed over with her selection of a bow and a quiver of arrows a few minutes after I did, though the knife she'd picked out was one of the longest ones available.
Our little group was then guided to another room on the other side of the Gym stadium. It was a training room with a large, open area, with several wooden posts on one side to practice using weapons on, and another area full of strength training equipment on the other side. The Gym Leader left to our own devices after demonstrating how to use the equipment, and the two oldest boys, Joseph and Damon, immediately started hacking away at the posts with single minded determination.
Linda, Sandra, and Zach started out with much more caution. I did the same, testing the weight of my pole and giving a few careful swings. I fumbled with it a few times – particularly when I tried to spin it like a baton – but I felt more comfortable with it than I think I would have been with any of the other weapons. It was very heavy though, and I grew tired quickly. The other two girls headed back to the Center twenty minutes later. I was tempted to follow them, but in the end made myself continue to practice. I didn't want to end up dead just because I didn't know one end of my new stick from the other. Only after a full hour had passed did I finally allow myself to go back to the Pokemon Center. By the end of it though, I was more than ready for the long, hot shower I'd taken before heading back downstairs to take a look at the computer room.
There were computers lining three of the walls, and a few rows taking up the middle of the room, along with a couple of other machines that I didn't know the function of. It all looked like the latest in modern technology. At least, more so than the computers I was accustomed to using. I spent several minutes sitting at one of the computers before I realized that using one of the physical maps in the library would be easier for the research I planned to do on the surrounding area. Before I got up to move to the library though, I allowed myself to be distracted by the pokemon database, which was much more efficient than a book when it came to looking up information about pokemon. I only planned on taking a quick look, but soon lost track of time.
I was in the middle of compiling a list of pokemon that I would want to catch if given the opportunity when shaggy haired figure sat down at the computer next to me. When I glanced at the clock on the bottom corner of my screen, I found that I'd been sitting in the same spot for close to four hours. Surreptitiously stretching my back to fight against the building soreness, I kept my eyes on my screen, wondering if I should try to talk to him. In the end, I didn't have to though.
"H-Hi," he said nervously, making the first move. He glance at me out of the corner of his eye, but snapped his attention back to his computer when he saw that I was looking at him. He tapped nervously at a few of the keys.
"Hello," I returned cautiously, moving my eyes back to my computer to avoid startling him. He reminded me of a baby deerling – all nerves and long knobbly legs.
He fidgeted in his seat. "I'm Zach – well, Zachary, but everyone calls me Zach." Taking a quick glance at him, I noticed that his cheeks were turning red, and he was staring steadfastly down where his hands were placed on the keyboard.
I smiled at him. "My name is Dahlia. It's nice to officially meet you." I told him, turning fully in his direction. His blush increased, spreading all the way to his ears before dying back down a little.
"Um, what are you doing?" Zach asked, confidence blooming. I spared a glance at the notebook I'd been scribbling in all day.
"I'm researching," I said. "About stuff that I think would be good to know during the Trials." Zach swallowed audibly at the mention, and I hesitated briefly before I continued. "I've been looking into what pokemon will probably be the easiest to catch, a little bit, and which pokemon have strong evolutional lines. And a bit about their weaknesses," I prompted. He exhaled shakily, wringing his hand together.
"Do you think you can help me a little?" He asked haltingly, "Just with what to look out for and what's the easiest to catch?" He looked down again. "I'm not very good at looking things up on computers. Or in books." He looked morosely at his computer screen, which is still on the homepage. I had to bite my lip to stifle a smile as I grabbed my notebook, the quick movement drawing his eyes back to me. I flipped back a few pages to find the one I had in mind. Giving it one last examination, I underlined a few more relevant pieces of information before tearing it out and handing it to him. It was filled front to back with information about the easiest to catch pokemon in the area in my small, clean handwriting.
"This is the information I think will be the most useful to you," I explained, before exiting out of my page.
"But what about you?" he asked concernedly, looking at the paper as if I'd just handed him a nugget of gold.
"It's all mostly in my head," I replied, tapping said body part with a finger as I stood up, my stomach growling with hunger. "And if I need to look at it again, I'll just ask you to borrow it, or look it up again." That was unlikely to be necessary though. My memory was pretty good usually, especially in regards to information that might literally save my life. "I'm going to grab some lunch in the cafeteria. Do you want to come with me?" Zach responded with a bright look and an eager nod, and I led the way out of the library doors.
The cafeteria was a lot more crowded this time, so I felt less self-conscious, though having someone to sit with also helped. Sitting with Zach was an interesting experience. Though both of us were pretty shy to begin with, we were able to keep up a steady stream of conversation. Zach, especially, turned out to be quite the chatter box once he opened up, and he had a ton of questions about pokemon. I'd been interested in pokemon my whole life, but the information available to civilians wasn't very detailed, and though I had been studying about them near constantly since the Reaping, there were understandably quite a few questions I didn't know the answer to. What I could do, though, was help Zach find the answers he wanted later. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
For the rest of the week leading up to the Trials, Zach spent a lot of time accompanying me to the library or computer room. He didn't share my ability to sit quietly for hours at a time, so he wasn't always with me, and sometimes he would drag me over to the Gym to build strength and practice using weapons instead, but I was able to help out with research. He especially appreciated when I was able to find pictures to go along with the material. I also ended up crossing paths with the others quite often. Linda and Sandra studied in the library quite frequently as well, usually together, and while they never sought me out, Linda always made a point to be friendly when she saw me or Zach. It always made him blush terribly. Sandra remained fearful. Though she dutifully spent time in the library and at the Gym, I noticed that she was easily distracted, and she never seemed all there to me.
The other boys were a slightly different story. They tended to spend most of their time in the Gym together, and when I did see them studying, it was usually separately. I also rarely saw any other trainers outside of the cafeteria. I later learned that during the time around the Trials, most of them steered clear of the Pokemon Center and Gym as much as possible to make sure all of the resources were available for the newbies. Nurse Joy was always happy to answer questions though. It was a very busy week between the work I did at the Gym and all the research I was doing. Before I knew it, the first day of the Trials was looming ahead of me.